One Chance
by secretcircle
Summary: What if Caleb sort of knew what was coming. A meeting that could have happened just prior to the start of the film. Possibly the start of a chain of events that will open all the boy's eyes.
1. Chapter 1 In Which Caleb learns a secret

**One Chance**

Just a little thought, what if Caleb sort of knew what was coming. A meeting that could have happened just prior to the start of the film.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained.

* * *

Tyler and Pogue had just called, they were on their way over so the three of them could all head to the party at the Dells together as a group. For some reason he felt compelled to wait outside and to wander down the drive to meet them.

At the top of the drive he paused to inhale the smells of summer, knowing they would soon fade and give way to the crispness of fall. Fresh cut grass, midnight jasmine and a faint hint of the sea. All very familiar and all very safe, he was home, in a place his family had called home for generations, a place where anything might be possible. Shaking his head at the strange flights of fancy the night seemed to be inspiring in him, Caleb continued to walk along the path beside the driveway.

Nearing the end of the drive he heard a rustle of leaves off to his left and turning, Caleb was shocked to see a girl step out from the shadows into a shaft of moonlight. Her long loose hair blowing around her slightly in the breeze appeared to be woven with honey and moonlight. Caleb had the strangest feeling that he knew her, but was sure he would have remembered someone with hair like that.

When she smiled, it was slow and almost hesitant, not quite reaching her eyes. It somehow prompted all of his protective instincts, to try and put her at ease, despite having just found her lurking in the bushes on his property, uninvited and in the dark.

Caleb opened his mouth meaning to ask her who the hell she was and what she was doing on private property, but when he spoke the words he said surprised even himself; "Hello?"

"Caleb Danvers, finally! Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to come outside, alone- ok that sounds vaguely seedy, and that is not how I meant it." The girl shook her head, as if to clear it. "Anyway, the point is I needed to speak to you, just you."

"Ok, but why? And who are you?" Caleb found himself relaxing slightly. It wasn't as if this girl could be a threat to him, not really all things considered.

"Umm, ok I wasn't expecting it to be that easy, I'm Cassie. We go to school together, although I doubt you have noticed me." Cassie paused, glancing up at him through her hair.

"You look familiar, but I can't place your face…" Caleb trailed off, frowning slightly.

At this Cassie bit her lip to hold back the giggles, but one glance at the frustrated look of concentration on his face as he tried to place her face, finally set her off and she giggled, hand over her mouth as if to try and hide the fact that she was actually laughing at him. Once she had calmed down a little, she met his gaze and a heaviness that had been in her eyes since she had first appeared lifted briefly. "Do you know you're not the first person to say that to me?" At his apologetic shrug she continued "You should try looking beyond the obvious some time, but that is not important right now," she said shaking her head.

Cassie paused, glancing around them briefly before drawing him back into the darkness of the hedge. "Firstly, I'd like to get this bit over with, try not to overreact, please bear in mind I've known you since we were 12 and have never said anything, but _I know. _All of it, about you, and Tyler, Reid and Pogue, about the powers you inherited, the covenant, the consequences you suffer, the whole kit and caboodle." At the shocked look on Caleb's face she stopped, giving him a sympathetic smile with a tilt of her head. "I've known since I turned 12, perhaps even before that on some unconscious level I guess, and I have never uttered a word of it to anyone before tonight. You, all of you and your secret are safe with me."

Caleb opened his mouth to respond, his hands clasped tightly into fists, holding the power just below the surface, ready if he needed it. Then he met her eyes, they were pleading with him, begging him to hear her out.

"Please, just hear me out. I think once I tell you why I am here you might feel a little more secure." Her eyes were compelling him to listen but it was the wringing of her hands and the way she shifted her weight from side to side as she watched him, as if there was more to it than just what he had already heard. That insight was what finally made Caleb relent. So, with a slight inclination of his head, he urged her to continue, but still kept himself ready to fight, if it should come to it he wanted to be ready.

Taking a deep breath Cassie turned towards the Honeysuckle climbing the wall, her fingers cupping a flower as she began to speak, "I promise I am not a threat to you, or the secret. I'm here to warn you, although about what I'm not completely clear"

At this Caleb had to fight from rolling his eyes, who was this girl, some kind of nut case? But she was still talking, moving restlessly from foot to foot, as if she was still not sure she should be here, telling him whatever secret she was here to tell.

"All I really know is that on your birthday next week, when you finally receive your full powers, someone, their features are in shadow so I cant say who, only that they have more power than you can imagine. This person will challenge you; try to force you to will them your gifts."

Cassie met his eyes, her own fierce in their conviction. "You cannot, I repeat can not give in to him. You will have to face him, and fight him, alone. If you don't, everything and everyone you hold dear will follow you to the grave.

First it will be your mother, the grief of losing you too much for her to take. Then Reid, rushing in where even fools fear to tread and all in the defense of his brothers, his family. Then as they ascend Pogue and finally little Tyler will be forced to follow the path into death that you laid down before them. All of it, the future for all of the families of the covenant, gone within a year."

At this she stopped, turning away to her left, leaving him in silence to absorb everything she had just told him. After a moment, he reached out for her, grasping her arm lightly, turning her towards him as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Why should I believe that? Who the hell do you think you are, coming out here and spouting this nonsense about powers and people dying?"

Shaking her head as if in defeat Cassie held up her hand to stop him before he could continue. "You don't have to believe me just now, you just have to understand that if, and I pray to God I am wrong, if this does happen then you have to face him alone."

"Ok, let's just say for arguments sake that I believe you, how the hell do you know that any of this is going to happen?" At this Cassie fought to hide the smile that was spreading across her face. "Surely you're intelligent enough to realize that if you and your friends exist, there would be others out there with other, unusual 'abilities' like yours, and don't tell me you are already so arrogant as to believe that it is only men that are capable of wielding such powers." Shaking her head at his put out expression, she began pacing, three steps to the left, and then returning back to stand beside the honeysuckle she explained:

"I have certain…gifts if you will, and recently I've been plagued with a series of visions about the upcoming weeks, centering around you and your decisions on and around your birthday. In these visions I've seen various versions of what could happen, the only one that gives you and your friend a chance at survival beyond graduation requires you to face this person, and defeat them- alone."

"You face him and fight, if you survive, your life, and those of your friends continues…If not, one by one they fall to the same darkness. Oh, one more thing, they can't know that I told you any of this. If they know they will try and either talk you out of it, stop you or both." Here she paused in her pacing, to look up at him.

He opened his mouth to ask some of the questions running through his mind, but was silenced by her cool finger pressed to his lips. "Please don't ask, not right now, we don't have time, Pogue just turned onto the road leading to your drive. Just know one more thing before I go."

"Go, go where? When will you be back?"

Cassie shrugged, smiling ruefully "I'm going away for a week or so. If all goes as I hope I'll be back in class Monday, after the Fall Fest. If not," shaking her head Cassie turned to stare up at the stars, "If not, I'm not sure I'll ever return. I have a responsibility to others, I can't put myself in the path of this power-hungry madman, not when I have no hope of ever stopping him. No…" The roar of an engine interrupted her here as Caleb turned towards the sound she said, "Trust her Caleb, she will stand with you."

"Who?" Caleb asked, spinning back to look at Cassie, only she wasn't there anymore. All that remained was a slight movement in the air to mark her passing and a light smell of jasmine and honeysuckle. Turning in a full circle and seeing no sign of her, Caleb walked out of the undergrowth, stepping out onto the path to meet Pogue and, unknown to him, to take the first steps down the path that would ultimately force him to be the hero.


	2. Chapter 2 In Which Pouge asks for help

Pogue is out of the hospital, wanting to do something special for Kate, but he needs help, what happens when he ends up asking someone very special for help.

Hi Guys, This story is beginning to get away from me, expect to see much more soon. Anyway I hope you like it, let me know what you think. SC

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, including the music. I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained.

**Sweets for my Sweet**

Kate had been out of the hospital for a week now and Pogue was still hobbling around on crutches but he was determined to mark the occasion. It wasn't everyday that you had your 2 year anniversary after all and after everything that they had been through recently he wanted to really make a fuss of her. Now if he could only figure out how to make it really special.

That was why he was sitting here with the guy's, his brothers about to open himself up to certain ridicule and ask for advice. He shifted slightly on his couch trying to find a position that didn't make his ribs ache after a few minutes he gave it up as a bad job and leant back again. Tyler turned from his position on the floor at his feet with a questioning look in his eyes. Pogue shook his head slightly dismissing the question before it drew any attention from the others. With a shrug Tyler turned back to the screen and continued to watch the movie. To be honest Pogue didn't even know what they were watching, it had been Reid's turn to pick the movie and all he could tell was that there seemed to be lots of running and shooting going on. Pogue focused his mind back on the matter that he had been pondering since he woke up in the hospital a week ago to find Kate asleep in a chair beside his bed, still in her hospital gown. That had tugged at something deep inside him and since that day barely 2 weeks ago he'd been trying really hard to show her how much she meant to him.

With that in mind he opened his mouth asked the question he had been dreading, " Hey Guys, I've been thinking I wanna do something special for Kate for our 2 year anniversary. I just, I can't seem to think of anything that would be right, I mean I could taker her out to some really nice restaurant in Boston, but anyone could do that, so yeah, any ideas?"

While he had been speaking Pogue had been staring at a dirty sock sitting on the floor near the TV, he looked up into the faces of his brothers, to see a whole range of expressions flitting across their faces. Caleb looked thoughtful, Reid, well as expected he looked disgusted and amused, but it was Tyler that was the shock, he had been expecting a certain degree of ridicule from the younger boy but it seemed Tyler might actually be seriously considering his request.

"You are so whipped, just because you've stupidly limited yourself to one woman for two years you feel you have to do something special for her. I mean seriously man, buy her some diamonds or something." …and as expected Reid did not disappoint.

Caleb shifted in the armchair across the room to look at Pouge clearly, "Is there some place special you could take her, like you've not taken anyone else or something?"

Pouge shook his head, "it's a good idea man but I already thought about it, I've either taken her before now or it just feels too contrived, you know?" As he finished the hand Pouge had been gesturing with flopped back into his lap, as sign of his frustration with himself. Caleb sank back into the chair a tilt of his head his acceptance of the response.

It was at this point that Tyler, who had been studiously focused on the screen added his two cents worth, "What about something personal, something that shows her you do actually listen when she speaks."

"Yeah, Ok but what?"

"Well what about cooking her dinner, but actually learning how to cook her favourite dishes and shit?" There was a pause, stunned silence as each of the guys looked to the youngest. It was Pouge who recovered first.

"Baby boy, you might just have something there" Pogue agreed as he sat forward to look down at the younger boy.

"Yeah the only problem, Casanova, you can't cook for Shit"

Pouge threw a pillow across the room at this comment; Reid easily dodged the missile and threw a cocky Grin back.

Caleb interrupted before war could break out, "He is right man, remember last time you tried to make grilled cheese?"

"Yeah I think you can still see the smoke stains in the corner of the kitchen" Tyler piped up, craning his neck to look in that direction.

Amongst the general hilarity of that memory Pouge sank back into the couch, defeated.

"When did you get together with her, wasn't it around Thanksgiving?" Caleb asked

"Yeah, why?"

"Well that means that we have nearly a month, and you only have to learn to cook one meal, what a main course and desert? This might actually be achievable. What is her favourite food anyway?"

"I'm not sure, she likes Italian I guess"

"Lasagne it is then!" Caleb said clapping his hands together with a grin. "What about desert?"

"Well she loves those little fluffy cheese cake, or the little tarts, well just about anything you can get from the bakery in town really"

"Right then it's settled, Caleb can teach you how to make Lasagne and you can go chat up the chick in the bakery, old woman Hamilton is sure to help you out if you give her the sob story" Reid stated "Now can we get back to the movie, I think this is the bit where the double secret agent chick comes out of the pool in a see through bikini" At this there were groans all around and popcorn and cushions rained down on Reid who calmly sat there eyes glued to the screen as the model turned actress of the moment emerged from the pool.

Four thirty on Saturday afternoon found Pouge swinging into the bakery downtown on his crutches, ready to beg, if he absolutely had to, for the lessons he so desperately needed. He had hoped by arriving now the shop would be quiet and he would find the owner in a receptive mood, however upon entering the bakery he found it deserted. Pouged paused on the threshold, looking around, the walls were decorated in a warm lemon colour, offset by white counters and crystal cake stands. Two small round tables sat in the windows ready for customers who might want to stop for a coffee and cake rather than ordering to go. The whole place had the air of a small Devon tea shop, inviting and homey yet still light and airy.

"Hello, anyone home?" He got no response; however the air was filled with the aroma of freshly baked-something, whatever it was smelt divine. So cautiously he approached the counter.

"Hello?" Still no response, but now he could hear music from what he assumed to be the kitchen out the back. Glancing around quickly Pouge tried to duck under the counter but a sharp reminder from his ribs had him reaching across and lifting the partition meant to keep people like him away from the inner workings of the shop. Glancing furtively around again he moved further into the inner sanctum, following the music that was defiantly getting louder.

"Hello, Cake shop Lady, Mrs Hamilton? Customer with a favour to ask here" Still no response so Pouge continued round the corner finding himself in a large industrial style kitchen, standing in front of him, her back to the door was a girl, about his age, dressed in bakers trousers, apron and hat, teamed with a black vest top. She hadn't heard him approach as she was singing along to the music coming out of the small I-pod speakers on the windowsill, her hips swaying in-time to the beat of Santanas' Smooth.

Pouge couldn't help himself, he may love Kate but he was a man and the view was just too good to pass up, so he stopped, leaned against the doorframe and watched as she worked. She appeared to be mixing something with deft gentle strokes, stopping after every third turn of the spoon to add a handful of ingredients from one of the various bowls scattered across the counter. To him it all seemed a little random, a drop of this, a pinch of that, but what did he know he could burn toast!

Coming out of his revive he realized the song had ended and moved onto something else, and she was no longer singing along but muttering under her breath, and turning, and seeing him.

"Oh my, oh who, what, umm?" The girls hand had fluttered to her chest, then rapidly to her mouth as if to contain the shocked babble, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment at being caught singing and dancing to herself.

Pouge couldn't contain his grin as he pushed off from the door frame standing upright he awkwardly extended a hand. "hi, I'm Pouge Parry the door was unlocked, I called but no one answered so I came back here following the music, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Right, yes, well" The girl visibly straightened, pulling her dignity back into herself. "What can I do for you Mr Parry? Were you looking for anything in particular or did you want to place an order for a party?" She asked pulling a pad and pen from the back of her apron.

"Well, actually I was sort of looking for a favour, you cook right?" She paused, staring at him in disbelief, then gesturing first to her outfit, including smudges a flour across both cheeks, then to their surroundings. "We are standing in the kitchen of a bakery, and I'm the one covered in flour and wearing the chef's outfit, what do you really think?" Rolling her eyes with her hands on her hips she looked at him waiting for his response.

"Well, yeah, Duh. I just wanted to be sure. You see, I have this Girlfriend"

"Right Kate, what can I do for her? And why are you here asking? Why not her?"

"Wait, you know who I'm dating?" She nodded one hand falling from her hip as she gestured at him.

"Your Pouge Parry, you sit with her in Maths Tuesday mornings and barely listen to a word the teacher says all lesson. Yeah I know who you are and who you're seeing. But that doesn't tell me what you want"

"Right, well then you know about how she was really sick recently and stuff?" At her encouraging nod he continued. Shuffing from foot to foot and running a hand through his hair. "Right well next month is our two year anniversary and I want to do something really special for her and well me and the guys"

"The guys being?"

"Oh right, Reid, Tyler and Caleb, you know them?"

"Know of them is more accurate, but continue"

"Right well I, that is we thought the perfect idea would be if I cooked for her- You know learn how to make her favourite food and did it for her"

Here he paused, to look directly at the girl she was biting her lip to hold in a huge grin, swaying from side to side her hands clasped in front of her.

"aww, that is so adorably cute, She will love it! But I'm still not sure why you're here?"

She stopped in her swaying grabbing a small jar off the shelf and moved back to the counter, "You don't mind if I keep working do you? It's just I have to have this finished by 5."

Pouge followed her across the room pulling himself up onto the counter and leaning the crutches against it. "No, not at all, what are you making anyway?"

"This, it's a Gingersnap fruitcake, its part of an order for Monday but it has to be finished today so that we can ice it tomorrow. You were telling me why you're here" she prompted, stirring something she had taken from the jar into a separate bowl.

"Right well you see Kate loves Lasagne and basically anything from this store, but me I'm, well, Ok as Reid so correctly pointed out I'm more than likely to burn toast if left unsupervised, and well." Here he paused slightly looking down at his hands folded in his lap "I was sort of hoping I could convince the Chef here to teach me how to make just one desert so I could cook it for her,"

"What are you doing about the main course?" she asked

"Caleb, he is actually a half decent cook and said he'd help me with that."

"Ok, firstly. I'm not suppose to share trade secrets so you have to understand that if this gets out I get fired, and its not that I need the job its that I love to cook, cakes make me happy" At this she slid a sideways glance at him and they both laughed. "So you can't tell anyone I'm helping you, and I'm going to trust you not to tell anyone the recipe for whatever we end up cooking. OK?"

"So, you'll help me?" She nodded her head sending him a sideways smile "You've got a deal he said" as she moved off to the oven the finished cake in hand. Pouge jumped down off the counter, forgetting his current state for a moment, until his feet hit the ground and he doubled over in pain, groaning.

"Are you ok? What happened?" she asked hurrying over.

"Its nothing just pranged my ribs getting off that counter; teach me to go jumping around after just getting out of hospital"

"oh, ok." Still looking concerned she backed off slightly, "If you are sure you're ok?" at his grimace she stepped back completely and set the timer for the oven.

"Right so how do you want to do this?" He asked leaning back on the counter one arm still wrapped protectively around his ribs.

"Ok, so the best plan is probably to work out the best desert to complement the main meal. You said Caleb was going to work on that with you right?" She continued on barely pausing for his response. "So I guess the best thing is for you to get me the list of ingredients, including all the spices, side dishes and stuff you will be using and I'll come up with two or three possible deserts and then we can take it from there."

"Ok" he said as he pushed off from the counter "That will work, so can I just bring the list here? Or can I give it to you in class? It's just I can't remember seeing you around"

"Its fine, I'm pretty invisible when I want to be. But I sit one row behind you on the isle in Maths Tuesday- then would work."

"Right, fine, So I'll see you Tuesday then" Pouge said getting up ready to leave, as he reached the door he turned "Just one thing" She looked up form cleaning the counter "What's your name?"

"Oh, that. You can call me Cassie." She concentrated on the counter wiping it down with long even strokes of the cloth.

"Cool, well I'll see you around Cassie" Pouge said leaving with a wave of his hand.

"Yeah, see you" Cassie echoed, relief evident in her voice. Caleb had at least done as she had asked. Now all she had to do was get through the next few weeks without getting herself into more trouble and slip back into the background again as soon as she could.

Even now she was regretting agreeing to help Pouge with his crusade but Cassie was a romantic at heart and would do anything she could to help the path of true love. Now the question was did she stand a chance helping Pouge without Caleb finding out –Wait she was brilliant!

Dropping the cloth and running to the front of the store she called "Pouge, wait" She caught him as he made his way across the shop floor. He had stopped and turned, slowly towards her. The question clear in his expressive eyes.

"If Kate or anyone finds out your spending time with me, it could cause a whole heap of problems, and not just for you. Perhaps it would be best we keep this association just between the two of us?" Cassie held her breath, crossing her fingers behind her back waiting for his response.

He nodded once as if deciding something in his own mind, "You're right, Kate can be quite, bitchy when she wants to be." Cassie smiled

"Good so we're agreed, no one knows I'm helping you and you will bring me the list Tuesday morning. Fantastic, right see ya"

"Bye Cassie, and thanks again"


	3. Chapter 3 In which Cassie gets a feeling

_Hi Guys here is Chapter 3, see if you can pick out my homage to a certain show__ (or shows) here. Let me know. Thanks go out to my Beta's, Particularly Greyhaven11. As always, not mine._

**Chapter 3**

Tuesday rolled around rapidly and Cassie was nowhere near ready for what she knew was to come. She had spent the last 5 years avoiding the sons of Ipswich, doing her best to be completely invisible to them and in the past month she had come out to one of them and agreed to coach another. All she could do was hope that Pouge kept his word and that all the precautions she had put into place to keep herself from being recognized by Caleb would be enough.

As she slid into her seat on Maths class she kept her head down, working to stay as invisible as possible. Today it looked like that wasn't going to be possible as a note landed on her desk. Looking up, she met Pouge's eye as he moved across into his seat.

Opening the note she found a menu and list of ingredients for how to make them. Caleb was obviously going for simple but effective. The pre-made Focaccia with tomato and herb butter was simple but looked and tasted impressive. A green salad and the aforementioned Lasagna made up the balance of the main course. A good menu, now all she had to do was come up with a dessert to perfectly complement it that could be taught to a guy who could apparently burn toast. The good news was that most of the first course could be made well in advance so that would leave a good deal of time, and oven space to focus on the dessert.

At the bottom of the printed menu and ingredients was a short handwritten note,

_Thanks again Cass, I really owe you one. I hope this helps you come up with something I can make without destroying the kitchen. __Pouge_

Underneath this scrawled in his untidy hand was a phone number and the brief instruction,

_text me with further details. P._

Cassie spent the rest of the morning thinking about possible dessert ideas. So far she had the classic tiramisu, poached pear tart with vanilla crème fresh, British strawberry cheesecake and a variation on profiteroles using mascarpone and raspberries. The first three were reasonably simple but the last one required a higher level of skill, but Cassie reasoned with herself that they could prepare the pastry together and all he would have to do on the night was create the filling and assemble. Now all she had to do was send him a message to arrange a time for them to discuss the menu options and their relative difficulties.

Cassie grabbed a tray and joined the lunch line, picking out a yogurt (think this may be US spelling), a fruit salad and the requisite fixings for her own Cesar salad mix and dressing. Without glancing up she made her way to the far corner of the lunch room and sat in her usual seat with her roommate, Jenna.

"Hi Honey, how's your day been so far. Meet any tall handsome strangers in the halls lately?" Jenna asked with a suggestive smirk. Cassie knew this was just Jenna teasing her, she knew full well Cassie avoided contact with any of the guys at school. The problem was this time she actually had been spending time with a handsome stranger and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Hiding her blush as best she could Cassie quickly deflected the spotlight; hoping people would put the blush down to the suggestion in Jenna's tone.

"Nah, you know me, invisible is a good word. You been stalking anyone cute lately Jen?"

Jenna sputtered slightly before grinning evilly and beginning to tell the whole table about her current flavor of the month and her plan to catch him. Shaking her head Cassie returned to her lunch and pulled out her phone to send Pouge the message with her dessert ideas and asked him when he might be free to discuss which ones he would like to try out, where and when they would do the baking.

Setting her phone aside she continued to assemble her lunch, her eyes aimlessly moving around the cafeteria, one ear to the conversation going on at the table. As her eyes scanned the crowd, she was looking but not really seeing anything that was going on. Then suddenly she felt it, the sensation of being watched, and Cassie knew better than to ignore the feeling. She continued to survey the cafeteria, only this time she was looking for something, someone. The question, as always, who was setting her "spider sense" to tingling?

She was just finishing her first pass when she found them, the sons of Ipswich sitting calmly at their table. It was Tyler who was watching her, she should have guessed, it was almost always Tyler. No matter what she tried he always seemed to seek her out, if only with his eyes. Swearing silently to herself Cassie realized she was yet again going to have to start eating in her room. Tyler was the hardest to avoid; Reid, Caleb and Pouge just didn't see her but, for some reason whatever she did to disappear never quite worked on Tyler. Spooky as it sounded she got the feeling Tyler was one of those rare guys who 'really see people" not just the outside shell they show the world but what was really underneath, and in Cassie's case there was an awful lot below the surface that she wanted to keep there.

Cassie was interrupted from her musings by her phone. Without breaking eye contact with the boy across the room, Cassie reached for her phone, not noticing as it slid several inches across the table and into her waiting hand. Breaking eye contact at last, she looked down at the phone in her hand, 1 text message received- Pouge

_All sound amazing; guys think we should have a cook off and decide. Didn't tell them who. What do you say my place thurs, __they will come over after practice. P_

Thursday she had AP Chemistry right after lunch and finished the day with a free period, she could stop into town and pick up everything they needed before heading over to his place. By what he had said and what she knew of him she was guessing she needed everything. She grabbed her phone, texting back before dashing out of the lunch room before Tyler decided to try and speak to her again.

As Cassie left the cafeteria she had the strangest sensation that she was missing something, it was a crawling sensation up her spine as if millions of tiny spiders were crawling across her skin. What was it she hadn't seen? Was Tyler following her? Chancing a glance over her shoulder confirmed that he was still in his seat speaking to his blonde friend, Reid. If that wasn't it, what was it, what had happened, changed that she was unaware of? Cassie hated that feeling, unfortunately she was also used to it, around here magic had a way of changing things and more often than she would like. Cassie knew it paid to listen to her gut, something was different, wrong and Cassie would need to find out what before disaster struck. The Big question was, what had changed?

As Cassie fled down the corridor her phone began to ring. Looking at the caller ID she had to smile, "Hey Lex, what's up?" Cassie asked as she continued down the corridor heading to her next class even though she would be really early.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," a deep male voice replied, "I get the feeling something is going on with you, tell your big brother all about it."

Shaking her head, Cassie replied, "Its, oh, I don't know. Something has changed. I can feel it but I just don't know what it is."

"Is that all? I think your holding out on me" came the cajoling voice down the phone.

"Ok, alright there is more, but I can't talk about it here, I have to get to class. Can I call you later?"

As Cassie sat through her last class of the day she considered what she was going to tell her brother. She would have to tell him about the baking lessons and probably about her little 'chat' with Caleb. Then there was the feeling she had had in the cafeteria, the sense that she had missed something. There was no point lying to her brother, it had always been said that if she could tell you what was going to happen he could smell the lie you would tell.

After Cassie had completed her homework she pulled on a pair of track pants and grabbed her phone and dorm room key, waiving a quick farewell to Jenna who was sprawled on her bed doing her English essay. Plugging her headphones into the mobile, Cassie started out towards to woods at a light jog, pulling up the hood of her Spencer sweater as she fell into the rhythm of her workout. Fifteen minutes into the run she was far from civilisation and she switched her phone from MP3 to direct dial, calling her brother.

"Hey Lex, are you clear to talk?" she asked, continuing down the trail before her into the woods.

"Yeah, so are you going to tell me what's been going on with you?"

"Yeah, just promise you won't get mad?" Even on the phone Cassie could imagine exactly what her brother was doing. Right now she imagined that he was clearing off a space on his bed ready to flop onto it.

"OK, I promise not to yell, but getting mad is not something I can promise"

Stopping to stretch out her legs Cassie began to explain about her dreams and Caleb.

"Caleb Danvers right? You know how Mum and Grams feel about him, why?"

"If I hadn't warned him he would have died, Lex, as in? dead. And it wouldn't have stopped with him. As a compassionate person I had no choice."

"Fine, fine, you did at least take precautions right? He's not going to try and talk to you again or anything?"

"You know how I dress around the Spencer kids? Well I went to see him as the real me, no holes barred, no masks. The only way he's going to see me again is if I let my guard down."

"Fine, ok I trust you. Wait that's not it? What else have you done?"

"Weell I might, just maybe, be teaching another one of them to bake a dessert for his girlfriend anniversary"

"What? Are you crazy? When Mum hears about this she's going to go nuts, do you realize the risks you are taking? You don't want to end up like Great Aunt Sandra do you?"

"Relax. None of them know who I am, I even got Pouge to promise not to say anything about me at all to anyone."

"Anyone? Not even his 'brothers?'" Without waiting for her response he continued on as Cassie began her run back to the school. "Have there been any, occurrences? Has anything happened?"

" No, yes, I don't know."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means that I thought everything was ok, but today at lunch, just before you called I thought I had missed something, you know, something important?" Cassie somehow felt him nod down the phone.

"The thing is, that was before I spent any time with Pouge and I was barely with Caleb for five minutes so it can't be anything. Gah! It's so frustrating. I have to protect them but I can't let them know I'm there or even that I exist."

"Ok, sis, I believe you, and you know why. Just please just be careful"

"You know me." Cassie replied,

"Always careful." they said in unison, laughing together.

"Anyway, I can see the school so I better go. Yes I'll keep you posted, love you."

"Love you too sis, take care."

With that Cassie switched back to her MP3 and jogged slowly back to the dorms.


	4. Chapter 4 In which Pouge lears to cook

_Chapter __4, Wow I'm on a roll see if you can pick out my homage to a certain show (or shows) here. Let me know. Thanks go out to my Beta's, Particularly Greyhaven11. As always, not mine._

**Chapter 4**

You could say that Thursday dawned bright and sunny, but this was Ipswich, in early November, so it was cold and just a little damp with the possibility of a lot more damp later. Cassie was running late, having slept through her alarm thanks to a very annoying roommate so as she made a dash to her locker before first period she had yet to tie her long honey coloured hair into its usual messy bun. As she rounded the corner by her locker at a run, foraging in her bag for her glasses, she failed to notice four guys standing talking. She also failed to notice the spark of recognition in the eyes of one Caleb Danvers. Fortunately for Cassie the bell rang before he could follow her around the corner and see her grabbing her physics text book as she mashed her glasses onto her face and pulled her hair back into a messy bun at the nape of her neck.

As Caleb was reluctantly dragged to class by his friends, his mind was completely focused on the girl he had just seen. So she did go to Spencer, and she had decided to come back. Caleb sat in his usual seat for English and for the first time in a long time barely listened as the teacher began his lecture on the various forms of symbolism in their latest book. Caleb racked his brains trying to remember if he had seen her around, at lunch, in his classes, the library. Try as he might he couldn't remember ever having seen her in school before this morning.

Meanwhile, unaware that she was the focus of Caleb's attention, Cassie sat in her Chemistry class, in some part of her mind glad today was theory and not practical because no matter how hard she tried her mind just could not focus on the lecture.

Staring out the window at the Massachusetts' rain, giving into the pressing need to let her mind wander. Cassie allowed her gift to come forward, reaching within herself for that indefinable spark that made her different from those around her. In doing so Cassie began to see things that could happen, and what she saw was either going to save or condemn her and those she loved the most.

The biggest problem however, was that no matter how hard she tried she couldn't see where the threads unraveled or even what the outcome might be. It was almost as if the fates were whispering in her mind, warning her that she stood balanced on a knife edge and to stray from the path would lead to ruin. For the first time in her life Cassie could barely see the path as it was lain before her.

"I guess this is what mere mortals feel like" she mumbled under her breath as the bell rang signaling the end to her school day and the beginning of a new set of challenges- damage control. Cassie grabbed her books, heading straight out of the main doors and to her car, her Mum's old VW Bug.

As she drove into town Cassie ran over numerous plans to get through the coming weeks without getting herself further into trouble, considering and rejecting each in turn.

After spending a very productive if mostly uninteresting hour and a half running from store to store picking up baking equipment, and all of the various other supplies she would need for her first cooking lesson, Cassie was on her way to her last stop, the bakery. Once inside she waived briefly at Mrs. Hamilton, who was serving a customer, before swiftly ducking into the kitchen to pick up the last of her supplies, things that you either had to buy from specialist suppliers you just couldn't find in old Ipswich or things that she herself had prepared over the past week. Glazed fruits, sugared flowers, the sort of artistic fripperies that turned a beautiful dessert into a masterpiece. She carefully packed each item into special containers to protect them from the rain and wrapped them all up in a large cake box.

On her way out of the door Cassie paused to explain to Mrs. Hamilton what she had taken and that she was using them to develop some new recipe ideas, justifying to herself that it wasn't exactly a lie, it's just that she wasn't working on them alone as she usually would.

"Alright dear, I look forward to tasting whatever new delights you are developing" Mrs. H responded, perfectly used to this sort of behavior from her young cook, who could often be found throwing seemingly random ingredients together in a frenzy as a new idea for a recipe took her.

In all her years Mrs. Hamilton had never met someone with such a talent for baking, a natural flare for creating the sort of desserts and sweets that drove grown women to distraction. It was a real gift and she was happy that Cassie chose to share it with people, it didn't hurt her profits either.

Having exchanged the necessary pleasantries with Mrs. H, Cassie headed off to meet Pogue at his apartment. As it happened Pogue had just pulled up in a black Hummer as she turned into the parking lot. He waived as he climbed down from the cab and limped over to her leaning on his one remaining crutch.

"Hey Cassie, thanks so much for this. I'm glad you could make it. Did you find the place alright?"

"Its not exactly hard to locate, being right off main street and all" Cassie joked "So only using the one crutch now huh?" she asked gesturing to his leg.

"Yeah, Doc say's I'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks, but Coach is really bummed because I'll have to miss the big meet with Hastings"

Cassie nodded, before turning and opening her trunk.

"So do you feel up to giving me a hand with some of this stuff?" she asked, without waiting for a response she handed him several bags before collecting the remaining bags and the cake box from the bakery herself.

Once they entered the apartment and set down all the parcels and packages they were carrying Cassie turned to him, "So let's see the kitchen. Find out what we have to work with here." Pogue gestured to a door in the left corner of the room and followed her as she made her way towards it, sidestepping the odd empty beer can and takeaway container.

From what she had seen so far Cassie was hesitant to open the door to the kitchen. She was not relishing the prospect of having to clean before she even began so when she opened the door to the small kitchen she was pleasantly surprised to find it was not only tidy but also clean. Cassie stood frozen on the threshold, pleasantly surprised. The look on her face must have given her away because behind her Pogue chuckled, placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her into the room.

"Don't look so shocked, I told you I didn't cook, I only ever use the fridge and microwave." At her incredulous look he continued, gesturing around as he did so. "I eat take out a lot, that and Caleb cooks. Now where does all this stuff go?" he asked gesturing to the pile of equipment and supplies Cassie had brought with her.

"Right, ok I should have figured that out I guess. I mean you did say you were capable of burning toast."

Cassie picked up the first bag, "Tins, pots and pans can all go on that surface for now, unless you have space in a cupboard?" At his shrug she continued, "The stuff in the yellow bag needs to go in the fridge. This one," she gestured with her hand to the one at her feet, "is all the dry goods and the box has the little special bits so they can just go on the side too."

They set to work unpacking everything, pausing for Cassie to explain what some items were for and where they should be placed every now and then. Once everything had been found a home, Cassie gestured back into the living room and said, "So I think first thing we need to do is go over the options, how does that work for you?"

Pogue shrugged, going to the fridge and grabbing two sodas, "you're the boss." He gestured for her to lead and followed her into the main room. He placed the sodas on the dining table before sweeping up the stuff piled on the table and dumping it in another room. Meanwhile Cassie pulled out a notebook and pen from her bag and opened it to the correct page. When he returned she was unfolding his first note to her with the menu and ingredients lists.

Pogue lowered himself into the chair beside her. Although he had not used the crutch around the apartment she could still tell he was not back to normal and this small gesture reminded her of this.

Cassie popped open her soda and took a sip before turning back to him and beginning to explain her thought process.

"So with the Lasagna, salad and bread combo I figure you probably need something a little lighter for dessert. I had a think about it, and by the way if I fail the next pop quiz for Math I am blaming you."

"What, why? What did I do?" Pogue looked at her slightly shocked. Shaking her head, Cassie waived her hands, "This, all this, giving me a baking project in the middle of a school day. Do you think I could focus on a word that was said in class once I started thinking about the desserts that would complement this menu?"

Shaking her head she continued, "Never mind about that now, I can spend some time in the library later. The point is I came up with four different options. We can try them all over the next week, while your friends are at practice. That way you can get other opinions on which to try then we can focus on you doing it all yourself once we have the final choice. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, so what are the options then?"

"Ok." Patting the notebook open in front of her Cassie began to explain each of the recipes, detailing their tastes, textures, merits and degrees of difficulty.

"So I figure we can work towards the profiteroles, start with something easier. Now today I think we should go with the cheesecake because I've not managed to get hold of a key ingredient for the Tiramisu or the poached pear."

"What's the problem, is something out of season or something?" Pogue asked, feeling pleased with himself that he had successfully used a technical term, or he had been until he saw her face. Cassie was fighting to hold back what appeared to be a fit of the giggles.

"No, no nothing like that. Both Tiramisu and poached pear require alcohol, and while that is not a problem in and of itself have you tried buying spirits while in Spencer uniform?" she asked him. He quirked an eyebrow at her, "Two of the desserts you picked out contain alcohol, and you came up with this menu on your own? "

Shaking her head Cassie explained, "Oh, no you see my Grandmother is from France and well, the French culture is to encourage sensible drinking from the age of 13. That and the fact that some of the greatest desserts in the world are nothing without just a little drop of this or that, if you will" she said with a shrug that, now Pogue was aware of her heritage, could recognize as a typically French gesture.

"But anyway I can get the supplies through the bakery, I put the order in the other day, but we don't get the delivery until tomorrow morning." Nodding Pogue gestured with his soda can to the papers before them. "So cheesecake huh? How does that work?"

Focusing back on the pages while she fiddled with the pen in her hand Cassie began to explain, "Well this isn't the sort of cheesecake you generally get in the US, it's a recipe I picked up when I was in England one summer. Basically there is very little actual cooking involved, no oven at all. In concept its similar to the New York cheesecake you are used to but it is much lighter and therefore more suited for a dessert to this meal."

Here Cassie paused to take a sip from her soda glancing around the room, it was in many respects what you would expect from a high school boy living away from his parents, clothes and books littered every available surface and in some cases had spilled onto the floor. What drew Cassie's interest the most however were the pictures on the walls and in a series of frames scattered around the room. From that alone you could tell that he had a very close circle of friends. Most of the pictures were of the other boys, the "Sons of Ipswich" but one particular photo caught her interest. Standing, Cassie walked over to the picture, hung on the wall by the door. It was of a group of families standing and sitting around a picnic table everyone looked happy, enjoying the day.

"That's me and the guys when we were younger."

Cassie jumped, she hadn't realized he had followed her. "Who is that, with the boy in the blue dungarees?"

"That? Oh, that's Caleb's Mum." Here Pogue paused, as if he were not finished but was hesitant to go any further. He needn't have worried, Cassie was miles away. Or perhaps it should be said was remembering something that had happened years ago.

"Cassie, are you ok, you look like you have seen a ghost?"

"What, oh, no I'm fine. It looks like that was a fun day. So which one is you?" As he gestured to a slightly chubby little boy sitting in the sand to the left of the group Cassie had to smile, mentally pulling herself away from the past and back into the present. Turning away from the photo and back to Pogue she said "Aww you were such a cute kid, how old were you there?"

"Umm, four I guess maybe five, it was just before we started school." he replied shuffling his feet and looking down.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you, god but it's true, that is one cute kid, actually.." Here she paused to look back at the photo. "That is four cute kids, but we were talking about cheesecake." They both turned back to the table returning to the topic at hand.

Fifteen minutes later they were back in the kitchen, Cassie pulling ingredients from the fridge as she directed Pogue to set up various different bowls, pots and instruments. He hoped she was going to explain all of this to him because as of right now he had no idea what he was doing.

Half an hour later they were both leaning against the counter, laughing and joking like old friends while the results of their labors chilled in the freezer.

"So you're not from around here, I mean you said you spent a lot of time in New York and Paris?" Pogue asked.

"Yeah, my parents moved around a bit when I was a kid, still do I guess, but my mum was brought up here in Massachusetts, in a small village outside of Salem. She always wanted me to grow up here and m parents agreed that high school and Spencer were what I was going to do, so here I am."

"Here you are, so you board at school and work in the bakery, what do you do for fun? I mean I've not seen you around, or at Nicky's or anything."

Pushing off from the counter Cassie began to rummage through some of the supplies she had brought with her, speaking over her shoulder she said;

"Baking is fun, besides have you seen the people who go to our school they think the world owes them their worship. Personally I'd rather avoid them as much as I can. I do lots of things for fun but I try to do them without being noticed. "

Pogue nodded his understanding but he couldn't help but notice she had not answered his question. Before he could call her on it she let out a cry of triumph turning to him from her rummaging holding several things.

"Are you ready for the final phase of dessert number one?" she asked, the challenge plain for all to see in her eyes.

"Bring it on" he gestured with both hands

Laughing, they both turned to the stove top as Cassie began to explain the process of creating a strawberry sauce to top off the cheesecake. Fifteen minutes later, and some raised eyebrows on Pogue 's part at her casual use of the strawberry schnapps she had produced, they had a thick red syrup with which to glaze the dessert. Next Cassie had him slicing strawberries and dusting them with icing sugar, along with some leaves she pulled from the cake box sitting on the far counter.

" Ok, now I think we may be ready to put everything together, you did say they were going to call before they left right?"

"Yeah, they'll call, although I can't see why you are so afraid of meeting my friends, they won't tell anyone. Although Reid will probably try and get into your pants."

At her blush he couldn't help but laugh, "Don't worry I'll protect you."

"I'd rather avoid the entire situation if you don't mind" she said as she pulled the dessert out of the freezer. Now remember you should really leave it in the fridge to set, but time was not on our side today."

Together they set about plating up the dessert, Cassie directing him where to place everything so that it looked 'just so'. Finally they had a series of six plates ready to be tested each looking as if it had been turned out by a restaurant.

"Wow, these look amazing, you really are great, you know that?"

Smiling from her perch on top of the counter Cassie picked up a plate and a fork handing them to him. "What are you talking about, you made this. I just made sure you didn't screw up. Now taste it and see what you think"

As he took the plate and begun to taste she picked up a plate of her own and did likewise. After a few moments of silence Pogue groaned,

"God that tastes as good as it looks"

"Could use a little more lemon in the filling" was Cassie's response.

Snorting in disgust Pogue turned to face her fully, watching as she took a second mouthful. "I can't believe you said that, I think its divine as it is."

"Yes well I'm the chef here, and I like things to be perfect." She set down her plate and fork leaning over her notebook to add some comment in the margin.

Just as Pogue was about to press her about her desire to avoid all his friends the phone began to ring, Cassie jumped off the counter.

"I'm guessing that is my queue to leave?" Pogue held up his hand to hold her off as he picked up the phone,

"Hey man, yeah the apartment is still standing, and yes Reid I do have dessert to feed you. How was practice?"

Cassie gathered up her stuff and waived at him.

"Just a second man, yeah I know" he put his hand over the phone.

"Listen Cass, thanks for everything, same time Monday?" She nodded and impulsively he leant forward placing a quick kiss on her cheek. At that moment the plate she had placed on the side fell to the floor with a crash. They both jumped and Cassie's eyes narrowed at the mess on the floor. "Don't worry I got it," Pogue said, "you have to run, remember?"

"Oh, right ok. Bye."

She smiled and turned to let herself out, thoughts of things moving when they shouldn't in her mind, as Pogue bent to clear up the mess, continuing his conversation with Reid as he did so.

_Authors note: OK guy's its decision time, which desert do you want Pogue to make for Kate? Answers on a postcard, or you can use the poll on my profile page._


	5. Chapter 5 In which Reid takes a swim

_Hi Everyone, Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed you have no idea how encouraging it is._

_Reminder, if you want to have a say in the desert choices, please do so I will have to close voting on my profile page soon so that I can write that chapter._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, including the music. I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained_

**Chapter 5**

Cassie was exhausted, she had spent the past week running from classes, to Pouge's apartment, to the library and back again. It was Thursday evening and she had just finished the last of her homework and was ready to collapse, the problem was that she knew if she tried to sleep now not only would she not sleep but she would have formless dreams, ghosts of things past and things to come. Ever since that first day in Pouge's apartment, Cassie had been plagued with formless images. Her subconscious was trying to tell her something but somehow she was not able to see it just yet. She called her brother, hoping a conversation with him would help her clear her mind some but his voicemail picked up and she decided not to leave a message this time. Glancing around her room, empty as always, her roommate likely off at Nicky's trying to catch someone's eye, she spotted her gym bag. Walking over to it she scooped it up and headed for the door, grabbing her keys on the way out.

Cassie entered the natatorium, tucking the last of her hair into the swimming cap and climbed onto the low diving board. Taking a deep breath Cassie jumped into the air once before throwing herself forward into the pool, avoiding a painful belly flop by the skin of her teeth. Surfacing, Cassie began to pull herself through the water with smooth even strokes. Up and down, back and forth. Stroke, stroke, stroke, breath and repeat. Cassie pulled forward her legs scissoring, propelling herself through the smooth water.f

Cassie continued to swim, pushing herself hard to bring on the exhaustion that would be the only guarantee of a peaceful night's sleep. Her mind was left to wander over the events of the past few months, to all the things she had done that perhaps she shouldn't have but that in actual fact her conscience would not have allowed her to do anything else.

As Cassie continued swimming, her thoughts miles away, she did not realize that she was no longer alone. In the stands clad in only a pair of swimming trunks sat Reid Garwin. Reid had planned on coming down to the pool to swim some laps and work on his turns before the big swim meet the following week, but on seeing the pool occupied and by such a fine figure of womanhood he had decided that a bit of voyeurism might do his turns almost as much good.

Reid allowed his mind to wander as his eyes stayed closely focused on the form pulling through the water. The stroke pattern was not familiar, so it wasn't a member of the girls swim team, but whoever it was had good form, he wondered why she had never tried out? As one part of his mind continued to analyze her proficiency with the stroke, another part of his mind was roving over her body noting the curve of her waist, the flare of her hip and the roundness of her butt. As his eyes traveled lower over her lean thighs and to the tips of her toes she paused at the poolside to catch her breath.

Cassie in the pool was completely unaware of her audience as she once again ran through that first visit to Pouge's apartment. The only thing that stood out as unusual was that photo, and that woman, Caleb's mother. Why would an image of a woman she had never met set off all her instincts, force her mind to relive images from her past over and over, without rest? Frustrated, Cassie stopped when she reached the poolside gasping for air.

Reid was about to stand and speak to her when she turned and he ducked, watching her through a gap in the seats in front of him. Reid watched in fascination as she leant her head back on the side of the pool letting herself float, her chest heaving with the exertion of her swim. In that moment Reid did something he would never admit to doing to anyone, he froze, he was completely intimidated by some high school chick in a bathing suit. He stood in his crouch and took in her features, certain now that she was not a member of the swim team. In fact, Reid was pretty sure he had never seen her before, and for a guy who prided himself on knowing every good looking girl in the school, many of them intimately, this was a shock to his system. Rocking back on his heels he waited for her to return to her swim so that he could sneak back out of the pool and back to his dorm room.

Cassie lay in the water, allowing her breathing to return to a more normal pattern, memories from her childhood running through her mind: playing with her brother, playing with his friends, eating ice cream in the park, throwing sand at the bullies. Then one memory came to the fore, she was only about three and a half and some friend of her mother's was visiting with her son, a little boy with dark hair and eyes, he had come padding into her room where she was sat staring in shock at the family dog, Rusty. She kept trying to get him to get up but he wouldn't move. She remembered crying and begging, "Come on Rusty, up, up Rusty, cake time." but he didn't move.

The little boy had sat beside her and looked at the dog for a few moments before turning to her and saying, "Doggy gone to angels." At this point all Cassie could remember was bursting into tears and the little boy pulling her into a hug and forcing a sloppy kiss to her lips. When neither had the desired effect he had gone running for his mummy. When the adults had arrived several things had happened all at once and Cassie could not remember anything save the smell of gardenias. That had been the last time she had seen that little boy.

Coming out of the memory, Cassie began a series of slow lengths of the pool to wind her body down ready for sleep. As she swam she considered this new memory, was this the one she had been trying to remember, and if so what was the significance of it? She would have to speak to Lex and see of he could shed some light on it. He had been a couple of years older when Rusty had died and perhaps he could remember more about that day.

Soon after the girl had entered the locker room Reid grabbed his bag and ran back to his dorm room, barely pausing to throw on the pair of sweat pants and hoodie he had brought with him. Reid pushed into his dorm room, the door banging on its hinges to signify his entrance. His room mate jumped from his perch at his desk, "Shit Reid, why do you have to always do that? Anyway I thought you were going for a swim?"

"I was, Baby boy, but then I saw this hot chick. Now I need to find out who she is, and where she's been all my life." Reid responded, grabbing a copy of the yearbook from the previous year and flopping onto Tyler's bed, his being covered in stuff that he could not be bothered to move just then.

"Come on man, use your own bed. Hey, that's my coke, get your own!"

Reid smirked and continued to gulp down the can of soda. "Can't sorry Baby boy, I'm on a mission."

Tyler turned back to his laptop and English essay, mumbling under his breath that if Reid spent half as much energy in class as he did chasing chicks he wouldn't be forced to do most of their homework himself. Ignoring his friend's mutterings Reid turned to the yearbook, going through each page looking for the face he had seen earlier at the pool. An hour later, thoroughly disgusted, Reid tossed the book aside, "What is she, some kind of ghost?"

"Hum?" Tyler glanced up from his calculus homework, "What are you complaining about now?"

"The chick at the pool. I can't find any pictures of her in the book, and there is no way she is just a Freshman."

"Maybe she's a transfer or something?" Tyler responded, frowning over one particular problem.

"Could be, guess I'll have to check into it later. I'm gonna crash, you nearly done?" When all he got was a grunt in response, as his dark haired friend scrubbed something out and added corrections, Reid got up and walked over to his bed, his eyes flashing black for a moment before everything that had been on his bed was back in its proper place.

"Reid, you gotta stop using like that man. It's not worth it you know that."

"Yeah, whatever man, sleep, now."

With a resigned sigh Tyler turned off the light and climbed into his bed, hoping that for once if Caleb had felt that he would let it slide.

After Cassie left the pool she returned quickly to her dorm room to dry off and prepare for bed. Her body seamlessly flowing through the repetitive actions of brushing teeth, changing into pajamas and washing her face, she was free to consider what she had just learnt. As she reached for her phone to set the alarm she noticed she had a missed call and a voicemail. It was Lex, "Hey Cass, sorry I missed your call. If its important call me back whenever, I will be up late tonight so no worries."

As she was listening to the message Cassie climbed into bed. Finishing the message she checked that her roommate was not back and hit redial, snuggling under the covers while she waited for her brother to answer.

"Hey Cass, what's up?" Lex asked as he answered his phone.

"Lexxy, are you free to _talk_?" Cassie asked stressing the last word.

"Why does it always scare me when you use that tone? Yeah, I'm alone in my room, I assume you are too?"

"Yeah, I was wondering. How are you fixed for a visitor this weekend?"

"Things getting you down?"

"Yeah, I want to be a teenager for a while and you know I can't really do that in Ipswich if I want to remain below the radar. That's not all though, things have been a bit hinky here, I need to check the books, bounce some stuff off you." Cassie snuggled back down into her covers feeling better just hearing her brother's voice.

"Are you ok?" Concern was evident in his voice as Lex sat down on the corner of his bed, leaning forward with concern.

"Yeah, I just, I've been having dreams, you know the sort? But they were of the past. Up until an hour ago they were too vague to be anything but a disturbance to my sleep."

"What happened an hour ago?"

"I went swimming, got a much clearer picture. The thing is that's not just it. I think perhaps some other things have been happening. I'm not sure but I think there might be some side effects."

"What sort of side effects? What's happened?"

"The other day I got upset and a plate fell off the side, then when I dropped my pen in class, it almost fell down to the row in front, but then it started rolling back till it hit my foot. Lex I think it's happening again."

"But you said you weren't spending time with them."

"I'm not, I wasn't but…"

"But what?"

"Well the day with the plate, Pogue kissed me."

"What?" Lex leapt up from his bed and began pacing. "What sort of kiss, I'll kill him!"

"Relax Lex, it was on the cheek, I just wasn't expecting it."

"And that's when the plate dropped?" Cassie nodded, then realizing that he couldn't see, grunted her confirmation.

"Sounds like a Telekinetic storm, but that can't be from the Parry boy, you weren't around him. Have you been telling me the truth?"

"Lex you know I don't lie to you?"

"Cass, calm down. I believe you, we must be missing something, Cass?"

Cassie was silent on the end of the phone, staring in shock at the glass of water beside her bed, the glass of water that was hovering a foot off the floor and rotating slowly clockwise.

"Cass?" Lex was now shouting down the phone. Cassie blinked, shaking her head, the glass fell to the floor, spilling as it landed.

"Umm, I think we can count that as a definite Telekinetic storm." Cassie responded biting her lip.

"What happened?"

"Glass of water hovering- it's stopped now"

"I think perhaps you better come up tomorrow afternoon, right after school. We are going to have to do some serious research. Until then, try and stay calm. That should help."

Cassie agreed "Lex, you won't tell _them_, will you?"

Sighing Lex rubbed his hand across his face "No, I won't tell them yet, but if we cant get it under control soon we might have to."

"Lex no, if they find out they will send me away"

"We won't let them Cass, you and me against the world, always remember."

"Yeah, together. Thanks Lex, love you."

"Night baby sis."

"Night Lexy"

Both of them hung up with a small smile on their faces, memories of their childhoods together filling their minds. Cassie turned out the light and leant back into her pillows, falling into a deep and restful sleep for the first time in over a week.


	6. Chapter 6 In Which Tyler takes notice

_Di__sclaimer: I don't own any of it. I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained_

_Authors note: _

**Chapter 6- In Which Tyler takes notice**

Cassie's alarm woke both her and Jenna that morning, Groaning as she rolled over Cassie reached to switch off the alarm only to have it silenced before her arm reached it. Squinting over there was no one there to have turned it off, remembering the previous night she glanced over at Jenna relieved to find her buried under her sheets. With a weary sigh of relief Cassie dragged herself out of Bed preparing to get ready for school, all the while chanting in her head, 'I must stay in control, I must not let anyone catch me.'

With this in mind Cassie dragged Jenna out of bed and together they made their way to the showers, Jenna stumbling all the way and bemoaning the effects of too much dancing on a school night, not that it would ever stop her you understand. Both of them were glad that this morning they lucked out and had a general studies class to start the day.

Once they were both mostly dressed in their uniforms and Jenna has at least partially regained a semblance of consciousness they made their way to the cafeteria, Cassie once again shoving her glasses onto her nose and twisting her hair back into a messy bun at the nape of her neck.

"You kn-now" Jenna yawned "I don't get why you always tie your hear back like that and why you insist on wearing a uniform that is several sizes too big for you."

At that moment they entered the Cafeteria, to see Reid Garwin 'woop' in delight as the girl bending over two tables down from him had her skirt blow up over her hips. "That!" Cassie responded "is the reason I dress as I do". Shaking her head at the poor girl, she picked up her tray and headed to the back of the line. "I do not want to have to deal with idiots like that every day"

"So what, you're going to spend your life hiding from guys?"

Laughing Cassie grabbed a bowl of fresh fruit and a round of toast "No, I'm just going to do my best to avoid them until they are capable of holding a sensible conversation with me without spending every moment trying to come up with a way to get into my pants."

Jenna shifted her bag on her shoulder before grabbing a coffee and muffin and proceeding to their table, "I'm telling you, give it a try and I'm sure you'll like it"

"Liking it is not the issue, the issue is being respected and liked for who I am not what I look like. Although having it all might be nice" Laughing both girls settled down to their breakfasts.

Unbeknownst to both girls their conversation and path across the cafeteria had been followed. As Reid continued to scour the room looking at every face for the girl from the previous night he allowed his eyes to pass over the one girl he was looking for, just as Tyler's eyes were once again drawn to her.

Feeling guilty both for spying and for using when he had given Reid such a hard time for it the previous evening Tyler Kept his head down despite Reid's constant demands for attention. He was still on a mission to find the girl from the pool. At this point Tyler wondered what Reid would do when he found her, demand to know where she had been all his life or just watch her. Finally dropping the power Tyler lifted his head and set about finishing his breakfast while checking over Reid's homework. Smirking to himself at the joke (checking Reid's homework) more like making sure enough of it was completed to allow him to remain on the swim team.

At that moment Tyler was pulled from his work by Caleb's bag dropping on the table beside him, seconds later Caleb followed dropping into the seat.

"What you got there Ty?" Tyler hurriedly closed the books "It's not like you to leave homework to the last minute" As Tyler continued to pack the books away without saying anything Caleb caught on. "But that's not your homework is it?" At this point Reid temporarily gave up his search for his swimming girl, turning back to the table and without even a shred of embarrassment asks "So baby boy, how'd I do. Will it pass?"

Caleb opened his mouth to deliver a lecture on, what would most likely be responsibility but Tyler jumped in before he could get any steam going,

"Nah man, you didn't do too bad this time, need to write down the references but otherwise I think you're good" Caleb looked from Reid to Tyler and back again.

Shaking his head "You really should finish your own work Reid, doesn't Ty have enough on his plate without doing your work too" Miraculously this is where the lecture ended, with a tight glare Reid turned his eyes back to scanning the crowd and Caleb began eating his breakfast.

"So where's Sarah today" Tyler asked, moving his eggs around his plate not really interested in eating them but apparently fascinated by the patterns they could make.

"Don't know, I'm suppose to be meeting her here for breakfast"

"Aww, how cute, are you gonna carry her books to class for her then? Man you are soo whipped" Reid tossed over his shoulder.

Tyler grinned, it was time for revenge "Oh, and your not, you haven't even spoken to this girl and already she has you scanning the cafeteria looking for her"

Caleb's ears perked at this and he set down his fork "What's this, has Reid got a crush?"

"Nah man, saw this chick at the pool last night, didn't recognize her at all, thought I should find out about her, if she's new perhaps show her the sights of Ipswich, is all"

Caleb steepled his fingers leaning forward, a wicked grin on his face, Tyler just sat back ready to enjoy the show.

"So you don't even know her?"

"nah, think she's new"

"And you are looking everywhere for her?"

"What, well, she was hot man!" Reid tried to defend himself, only now realizing the trap he had walked into.

"I think what we have here Tyler, is Reid getting a taste of his own medicine, all we need now is for the girl to not even give him the time of day. Maybe there is a god!"

Tyler smirked as Reid turned to glare at both of them "Fella's she's a girl, all girls dig the Garwin, some of them just take some time to realize is all"

"What about Sarah, she went straight for Caleb here" Tyler said emphasizing his point by throwing his arm around the older boy. Both shared a grin before turning to Reid, who just shrugged in return.

"ahh, but I got to see her without clothes on first" he said sitting back with his arms folded across his chest, a satisfied smirk on his face as he looked at his brothers. Caleb's face was a picture while Tyler's face was scrunched up,

"Dude, she was wearing a towel, besides you snuck up on her from what I heard."

"Whatever man, I've got stuff to do, see you in class?"

The three guys said their farewells just as Sarah and Kate approached from the food line. "Hey Tyler, morning Caleb"

"Morning Kate" Tyler and Caleb responded before Caleb welcomed Sarah with a kiss. Rolling her eyes Kate turned to Tyler, effectively blocking out the PDA occurring to her left.

"So Tyler where was Reid running off to?"

Grinning Tyler informed Kate about Reid's most recent obsession. "Hey, do you know who it could be?"

Biting her lip Kate considered what she had just been told.

"Cute girl, Reid doesn't recognize her, must be honor roll" At this even Sarah and Caleb managed to tear themselves away from each other to laugh.

"Seriously Tyler, if all you can give me is Reid thinks she's cute but doesn't recognize her how do you expect me to identify her. I need hair color, height, class year perhaps."

Shaking his head Tyler sighs, "Look that's all I have right now" He is about to continue when he spots movement off to his left, she's leaving. He can't help but follow her movements with his eyes and in turn have his shift in focus observed.

"So Tyler" Here Kate paused until she had regained at least some of his attention "when you going to ask her out?" Kate prompts

"Huh who" He asks getting up from the table without a backward glance and heading for the door to the cafeteria.

"That girl you were checking out all through breakfast" Kate responds following him to class.

Shocked Tyler turns to her "Which girl?"

Smiling Kate gestures to the doors as they swing closed ahead of them. "The cute blonde with the glasses."

Tyler glances at her and the stricken look on his face tells Kate much of what she needs to know. "Don't worry, I won't tell them a thing so what's going on, are you goin' to ask her out?"

Gesturing ahead with frustration Tyler continues to the cafeteria door, opening it for Kate before stepping through himself; "I wish I could but whenever I try to approach her she runs in the other direction. I've never managed to say a word to her. I don't even know her name"

Kate smiled in sympathy patting him on the arm "Well that I can most certainly help you with" at the look of gratitude in his eyes Kate felt compelled to continue. "just give me a couple of days to see what I can dig up, ok" He smiled and Kate wondered as they entered their first period class why Tyler was still single, there were many girls who would go weak at the knees if they were on the receiving end of one of those smiles.

Tyler just didn't seem to notice. Perhaps it was growing up in the shadow of the other three boys, each a strong personality themselves. Tyler was naturally more easy going he allowed the others to lead, to push their personalities forward but in a room, without his other 'brothers' Kate knew the boy could really shine.

Cassie was heading to her locker to pick up the last of her textbooks for the morning's classes, her mind however was miles away, already thinking about the weekend. Turning over the possibilities of what her research might turn up, but also over the fun she might actually allow herself to have. She knew she was here in Ipswich for very good reasons, but the constraints of both that responsibility and the added pressure of being invisible while doing it were taking their toll. Cassie needed to get out of town and get the chance to be a seventeen year old girl again. She was thinking shopping, she was thinking dancing but most of all Cassie was thinking of the freedom being with her brother would allow. She could finally stop being completely responsible, if only for a day or so and have someone else watch her back as she allowed herself to go a little wild.

Cassie continued to think about all of the things she would be able to do over the weekend as she trusted her feet to take her to her next class, which is why when she felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her into an unused classroom not only did she jump but began to scream. A hand promptly covered her mouth and a familiar voice soothed her, the desk at the front of the classroom, which had been suspended nearly a foot off the ground gently lowered itself as Cassie pulled herself free of her captor and turned to face him.

In some small part of her mind Cassie noted the desks gentle decline and hoped it was a sign she would eventually be able to control this new 'gift' of hers.

"What the hell Pogue, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Cassie demanded folding her arms across her chest and glaring at the biker boy in question.

Holding up is hands in a manner suppose to placidate Pogue opened his mouth to explain, an apologetic look on his face

"Whoa there, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you, but I needed to talk to you and I know you didn't want people seeing us talking or anything. I thought I was doing the right thing?" Ducking down he tried to look into her face.

Rolling her eyes Cassie relented "No, no you did the right thing; it's just, next time please try not to scare me, it's hazardous and not just to my health. If you get my meaning"

Pogue smirked leaning back to sit on the teachers desk at the front of the room, his face and eyes said it all 'What could you, a slip of a girl ever do to hurt me' What he actually said was much wiser and when addressing this particular 'slip of a girl' all the wiser as he might one day discover.

"Sorry, but I tried speaking to you, what were you thinking about, you were miles away."

"Yeah I guess I was, so what's so urgent that you have to abduct me and drag me into a classroom"

"I wanted tell you which desert I wanted to make for Kate, now we've tried them all."

"Oh, right, what did your friends think of the profiteroles?"

"Reid loved them; he ate almost half of them all to himself."

"Really, did he make himself sick? That's a lot of sugar for one person to consume; I mean there were six portions in the batch we made."

"Six, really? I think he regretted it later but you know Reid" Pogue said wit ha shrug "He will never admit he was ever wrong, about _anything_"

Laughing Cassie shook here head, "From what I know the same can be said for each of your friends"

"Hey!"

Cassie just laughed at him. Sensing he was not going to win this argument, at least not right now Pogue decided a change of subject was wise,

"Yeah, so the pear tart thing came up top, Tyler really loved that one and Caleb agreed it would probably really complement the rest of the meal.." Here Pogue began to trail off as Cassie continued to stare over his shoulder, "What is it?" he said turning

"Oh, what, nothing" Cassie quickly interjected, grabbing his arm to stop him turning completely as the board eraser lifted off the stand and wiped away the shaky line the chalk had just made. Cassie was certain now that it was her making things move, packing the thought away for later research she snapped back to the present, meeting Pogue's questioning gaze.

"Ok so the Poached pear tart with vanilla Crème Fresh it is then" the warning bell rang and Cassie half turned to the door, "so when do you want to start practicing?"

"Well, if you're about I thought we could try tomorrow, Kate is going shopping with Sarah and the guys have other plans.

Cassie shook her head pushing her glasses up her nose, "I can't this weekend, I'm going away, to see my brother, family stuff. Sorry, you understand?"

Pogue nodded pushing away from the desk with a sigh; he ran a hand through his hair "Yeah, no that's cool. When is good for you?"

"Umm, I can do Tuesday after class?" Glancing down at his leg Cassie noticed "Hey, your not using the crutches at all. Does that mean you're fixed?"

With a wry grin Pogue shook his head "Not quite, but I'm on the way and hopefully the Docs will let me back in the pool for light training by the end of next week."

"That's good news" Cassie nodded, just then the second warning bell rang and they both turned towards the door, "We best go, don't want to be late for class." With that they both left the empty classroom heading for their respective classes. Neither of them noticed that they had been watched sneaking out of an empty classroom together.


	7. Chapter 7 In which Alexis gets a visitor

_Author note: If you like it please let me know, a little review can't hurt and it gives me warm fluffy feelings_

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained****

**Chapter 7 In which Alexis gets a visitor**

Cassie was sitting in her last period history class where they were investigating the history of Paganism. She couldn't quite hide her amusement, luckily everyone else was too busy laughing and joking about 'witchcraft'. Rolling her eyes at one particular comment from Aaron Abbott and his cronies Cassie felt her eyes drawn to the other side of the room where four boys were hiding their unease behind fixed smiles. As she scanned along the line of eyes she finally came to the last of the four boys, the youngest whose eyes were staring directly back into hers. Cassie tried to tear her eyes away, hoping he couldn't see the ironic amusement in her eyes but for some reason she was unable to. She sat there looking directly into Tyler's eyes as he looked right back at her and in that moment nothing else mattered, nothing else existed except those eyes and the person hiding behind them.

As Cassie continued to gaze into the deep blue eyes across the room she began to sense the thoughts behind those eyes, it was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Just below the surface flitting about like tiny silver fishes, instinct guided her as she mentally leapt forward, fixing onto one of those flitting little thoughts.

'Who is she? Why do I feel connected to her? Why won't she ever talk to me?' and then the next flash of thought 'This class really blows, Mr. Murphy has no idea about any of this, I wonder what he would do if we stood up and showed his some real power. Caleb would have a coronary'

The bell rang snapping her out of Tyler's mind Cassie snapped her books closed with a sense of relief. Classes were over for the day and hundreds of students were pouring from the doors of Spencer Academy all looking forward to the weekend. Cassie was right there with them, heading back to her dorm room almost at a run but as she traversed the hallways and paths her mind was filled with the images she had seen in the mind of the youngest son of Ipswich, was all that real? Had she imagined it? Was she developing another gift? It was all too much to take in at once. Cassie was very glad she was heading straight out to her brothers, just as soon as she finished packing her stuff anyway and with that thought she entered her dorm room, dumping her book bag onto the bed and proceeding to throw seemingly random items into the sports bag at the foot of her bed.

Within minutes she was packed and hefting the bag onto her shoulder Cassie made her way down to her car for the drive to Cambridge and her brother's apartment just off the main campus at Harvard.

What Cassie didn't realize was at almost exactly the same time someone else from her class was doing almost exactly the same thing. If she had Cassie may not have been quite so excited about escaping the restrictions life in Ipswich imposed on her. Thankfully Cassie was completely unaware and looking forward to a weekend of both partying with her brother and brainstorming over the most recent developments in the continuing Saga that was her life in Ipswich.

­

A little over an hour later Cassie pulled into the parking lot of her brothers complex, grabbing her bags she let herself into the building and made her way to his door, knocking once she used her key to let herself in calling out to her brother as she did so.

"Hey, Lex? It's me, anyone home?"

When she got no response Cassie dumped her bags before grabbing a soda from the fridge in the small kitchenette and heading down the corridor to the small room hidden behind the bookcase in the second bedroom. After flicking the hidden catch Cassie proceeded to enter the room, turning on the light switch as she did so. The room before her was instantly lit with a soft yellow light as the bookcase closed behind her, sealing her in.

Cassie allowed her eyes to scan the room taking in the walls of books, the cupboards of what appeared to be herbs and spices and in the centre of the room something that looked like a font from a church, filled with water. Moving slowly around the font Cassie made her way to the one item in the room that seemed completely out of place, the large overstuffed couch sat before one of the bookcases, hiding several shelves from sight. Cassie grabbed a large brown book from the shelf to her left before collapsing unceremoniously onto the couch soda in hand and book on lap as she began to read.

Two hours later the door to the secret room opened and Alexis walked in, a bag of chips in one hand and a couple of sodas the other. "Hey sis" he spoke reverently in hushed tones as if there was a weight in the room, and Cassie considered, perhaps there was this was, after all, their family legacy in the books all around them.

"Hey Lex, just doing some light reading" she smiles gesturing to the large book that all but filled her lap.

He nodded flopping onto the coach beside her, handing her one of the sodas before popping his own. "Yeah, I see that, so have you found anything interesting yet?"

"Well I started with Aunt Sandra's journal, then Grandma's. From what I've been through and her and Grandma's ideas I have something of a working theory as to how this all happened. The problem is it may just have some very large holes in it."

"What sort of holes?"

Sighing Cassie closed the book and turned fully to face her brother, "Ok, think of a number between one and, oh lets say a million"

Frowning Alexis opened his mouth to reply, "Wait, don't tell me, you got a number?"

He nodded and Cassie squinted in concentration, focusing solely on her brother and what was going on behind his intelligent grey eyes. The power came easier this time, she felt it rising up like a bubbling spring, rather than the slow tide it had been earlier in the day.

With a cry of triumph Cassie sat back "two thousand, one hundred and eighty three, no eighty sev.. three. Would you make up your mind!"

Lex worked his jaw in astonishment, fighting to find the words, "Holly cow, did you just pull that from my mind?"

Biting her lip Cassie nodded "Uh-hu, Freaky right?"

"Hell yes, when did this happen?"

"Earlier today, you going to eat those chips?" Wordlessly Lex handed over the family sized bag of Doritos. Cassie immediately began munching on the snack.

"Yeah, so can you tell what I'm thinking all the time?" Cassie could detect the worry in her brothers' face.

"Don't be silly, right now it takes quite a bit of concentration, but I'm guessing by how much easier that was compared to earlier that in time, with practice I might be able to"

At the look of shock on her brothers face Cassie had to laugh before continuing, "But I won't. I respect your privacy far too much. It would be completely unethical of me to use this new 'gift' for my own personal pleasure. Relax your thoughts are safe around me."

"That is a relief, so can you control it? What about the telekinesis?"

Cassie paused in her munching, leaning back on the arm of the couch and propping her feet on her brothers lap. "well this whole telepathy, or whatever 'I've not really classified it yet' seems to require direct thought to activate. The telekinesis, that's a bit more scary I have to be very careful and if I get a shock I'm not sure I can be held responsible for what will happen"

"Sounds fair, I'm guessing with time you should be able to get that under control too." Patting her legs in a comforting gesture her brother continued "So this theory of yours, how does it fit into the mission?"

Cassie finished the bag of chips and looked around her, "You got any more of those, I'm starving"

Alexis laughed, standing up, and then pulling her with him. "How about we go out to eat, catch up on normal brother sister stuff, my treat."

"Well why didn't you say so earlier, let me grab my purse" As Cassie dashed out of the room she heard a half cough- half laugh behind her, "Perhaps you should change out of the Spencer uniform too, cute as you may be it might draw a little too much attention. If you get my meaning"

Looking down at herself Cassie rolled her eyes, "well, duh! Of course I'll change first. It will be nice to go out as Cassie the girl rather than Cassie the mouse"

Alexis got down on his knees, hands clasped before him as he begged "Please, for me, dress like a normal person, don't go overboard. It's only dinner, not clubbing in New York!"

"Yeah, yeah, Chill out Lex, you worry too much" Cassie shot over her shoulder with a wave as she headed to the kitchen to grab her bags. On her way to the room she considered 'belonged to her' when she stayed with her brother Cassie grabbed an apple and a box or Oreo's from the kitchen.

"Whoa, don't spoil the dinner. Its not often your big brother takes you out"

"Yeah I know" Cassie shouted from her room as she sorted through the clothes she had brought with her, Coming out Cassie muttered to him under her breath "Its just you know what the power does when you use it, and I have been rather busy today." She was wearing Jeans and a long sleeved scoop neck top with her hair down and glasses off Cassie pirouetted "Meet with your approval?"

Lex nodded his approval as he grabbed his keys and wallet from the counter, "Let's go, seen as _someone_ ate my snack I'm really hungry"

Linking her arm through his Cassie grinned wolfishly "Me too, I'm famished" Ignoring his huff on incredulity she continued "So where are you taking me?"

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	8. Chapter 8 In which Tyler takes advantage

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained_

**Chapter 8 In which Tyler takes advantage/Cassie lets her hair down**

The next morning found both Alexis and Cassie back in the secret room combing the books for information on the effects the Coven of Ipswich had on their family, why Cassie had been sent to 'watch over them' and hints as to how to control Cassie's developing powers.

They spent the morning re-reading their Grandmother and Great Aunt's diaries and after several discussions and a review of Cassie's own diary they decided that none of the warning signs of the 'crazies' were present, with relief they turned their focus to other, less pressing maters, where were these new gifts coming from?

After much theorizing they decided they were not going to get any further without more information, it was time to call Grandma. Having argued about who should make the call for a good half hour they decided perhaps it would be best just to wait for thanksgiving in two weeks and address it then, provided things didn't get worse that is.

They broke for lunch, calling for take out pizza and Chinese in preparation for the major energy burn Cassie would be experiencing that afternoon. Locking themselves back in the secret room after lunch they worked for several hours honing her new found telekinetic abilities. By the early evening Cassie had eaten two large pizza's a quart of Ben and Jerry's and two packets of Oreo's, she had also managed to alphabetize the entire magical library, without touching any of the books. They had improved both her control and precision and it seemed worked out how to reduce and do 'damage limitation' on any telekinetic storms that might occur.

Giving up for the day, they collapsed on the couch in the living room, Cassie turned on the charm, batting her eyelashes and using her best little sister voice. "Alexis, I came all this way to see you and we've barely left the apartment."

"You came all this way for the book's, I'm just the bonus, What do you want?"

Giggling Cassie said "I want to go dancing, I want to be a teenage girl without responsibilities, without consequences, I can never do that back at school you know that" At the look on her brothers face Cassie knew she was going to win, but she needed to give him just a little push to tip it over the edge "_Please_ Lex, you know how much I love you and how good I've been, _please_"

"Well that's debatable you have revealed yourself to one son, and have been spending quite a lot of time with another, I'm not sure that can be classified as _good_."

"Come on Lex, _pretty please_"

"Ok, but if they ask for ID, we come straight back and watch movies"

"Fine, fine" Cassie rolled her eyes, jumping up to get ready she called over her shoulder "I wouldn't count on them carding tonight. I 'forsee' a carding free night with much dancing, and maybe a couple of margaritas."

Groaning in defeat Alexis rolled off the couch to go and get ready. It seemed he would be looking after his little sister. He guessed the evening would involve running off guys, intercepting as many of the cocktails as he could and getting her home safe before she collapsed from exhaustion.

Thirty minutes later Cassie waltzed back into the living room where Lex had been sitting waiting for nearly twenty minutes. Standing with hands on her hips one shoulder jutting forward she demanded, "So how do I look, will I do?"

Lex opened his mouth to respond, glancing up from the magazine in his hands his cursory response dying as he quickly shut his mouth with a snap.

Cassie, his baby sister Cassie was standing there in skin tight blue jeans, tucked into long stiletto heeled boots and a fitted blue and purple pinstripe vest, her hair tumbling about her shoulders in natural waves. This wasn't the little sister he knew, for once he was glad of the constraints life at Spencer Academy had forced upon her. At least then he could be sure she wasn't constantly fighting off unwanted attentions without him there to protect her.

Shaking his head abruptly to halt those images before they became more graphic and upset him further Alexis stood up, "Yeah, Cass you look beautiful, different sure, but really beautiful. I'm guessing I'll be the one beating the boys off with a stick tonight."

Laughing Cassie tossed her hair over her shoulder "Nah, why would you want to fight them off. If I'm really lucky I might be able to collect some phone numbers for next year when I'll be here with you."

"As long as phone numbers is all you collect" Alexis mumbled to himself grabbing a jacket and heading for the door.

"I can hear you, you know!" Cassie sung at him, following him down the stairwell "and you don't need to worry, I'm a good girl at heart, well mostly. Anyway you'll be watching over me all night, I can tell, you have that look in your eye."

"What look?" Lex tossed over his shoulder as he turned onto the last flight of stairs.

"The look that say's 'that's my baby sister and no one is ever going to throw sand in her hair on my watch ever again!' you know, the look you developed after that time when I was in first grade in the school yard."

"I remember, and it's true, not mater how big you get you will always be my baby sister, it's just something you have to learn to live with."

Sighing Cassie knew she would never win this argument, she also knew that tonight she was going to have a fantastic time, she just had this feeling. One thing she had learnt growing up, you never underestimate your gut.

An hour and a half later Cassie was half way through her second cocktail, this one was blue and had a cherry still on a stalk floating in it. She was prepared to admit, if only to herself that she was just a _little_ bit giddy with the alcohol, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. The dance floor was filled with people moving in time with the music and Cassie for the first time in months was going to join them.

Setting aside the remainder of her drink she dove into the heaving masses, finding herself a space amongst the crowd she began swaying her hips in time with the beat after a few minutes her arms and legs joined her hips and Cassie closed her eyes ignoring everyone and everything around her save the pulsing beat of the music. Later she would admit that could have been her first mistake, but at the time Cassie was far too enamored with the little irresponsibility she had been allowed for this one night. She threw herself into the music immersing herself totally, until she felt a pair of strong hands on her hips and a warm body behind her moving in time with the beat of her body.

If Cassie had been completely sober and on her guard she would have recognized the voice that whispered in her ear to keep her eyes closed when she turned into that same warm body. That was her second mistake. At the time however Cassie didn't even consider it strange she allowed her arms to encircle the guy's neck as his wound around her back pulling her body flush against his, she thought nothing of his warm breath caressing her neck and it was only as his lips met hers and an electric current ran through her body that Cassie even realized what she was doing. At that point even though her rational mind was putting up a good fight the alcohol and her teenage hormones would not be denied.

In the middle of the dance floor Cassie gave in to the sweet desire, allowing herself to be swept along by the most amazing kiss she had ever experienced. As the passion built, hands began to roam and she met his tongue with her own, something changed. At first it was a small change, but then it grew, until Cassie was able to identify it as something, a feeling of oneness the likes of which she had only ever felt before with her brother. With that sense, other things began to filter into Cassie's consciousness. The first of which seemed to be his mind. The fishes flitting about in the ever changing currents of his mind, the electricity that seemed to zing along her body from every place they touched. At that moment Cassie pulled back needing air, opening her eyes as she did so.

Cassie found herself staring into a pair of deep blue eyes, familiar blue eyes. Set in a very familiar handsome face. Cassie was standing in the middle of the dance floor of a Cambridge nightclub, her body tightly wrapped around that of one Tyler Simms. The same Tyler Simms that she had spent the last six years running and hiding from. The guy who's tongue had just moments before been down her throat. The only guy to have ever made her feel alive and one of the only guy's she could never have. All of this rushed through her head in mere seconds as she stared in shock at the boy who may just have condemned her to a life of mental instability he leaned forward and whispered in her ear "I've been wanting to do that with you since we were thirteen, but every time I tried to get near you, you ran a mile, Why?"

"Y, you, you shouldn't be here, you should be back in Ipswich. I gotta go, I gotta find Lex" And with that completely inarticulate sentence Cassie turned on her heel and fled. Barreling through party-goers left and right as she made her way to the place she had last seen her brother. When she got there he was grinning "Having fun there sis? He looked like a nice one." But one look in his sisters' eyes and Alexis stopped his teasing; leaping onto his feet "What did he do to you? I'll kill him"

Shaking her head Cassie guided her brother out of the back door "He didn't, well not anything I didn't want, but he, that." Pausing to gather her thoughts Cassie didn't notice that she had been followed. Taking a deep breath she continued "That, that was Tyler Simms, as in Son of Ipswich Tyler, as in fire and black eyes Tyler, as in I can do anything I want, provided I don't mind aging a few years Tyler Simms!"

"What?" Alexis roared "What were you thinking, letting him kiss you, letting him even touch you, Cassie I swear if this lands you in a mental asylum god help me I'll kill every last one of them!"

"We've, got to go, like now, I can't I mean I, I" Cassie burst into tears, all the trials of the past few weeks finally becoming too much for her she began to sob uncontrollably. Alexis wrapped his sister in his arms doing his best to soothe and comfort her, knowing that right then there was nothing else he could do.

As Cassie and Alexis made their way to his car and back to his apartment a pair of deep blue eyes watched them go. Deep blue eyes clouded with confusion. Tyler was unsure he had heard correctly, did his girl, the one he had been crushing on for years and had finally gotten to kiss just run away from him? Had she justified her reason for running to this other guy was his status as a Son of Ipswich? Did she just out the Covenant to that Guy? How did she even know about the Covenant?

Tyler's first instinct was to chase after them and find out what they knew and how they knew it. Some part of his mind over road that instinct. What if they were like Chase? That guy was defiantly over 18 and Tyler was months off being able to face that kind of challenge. Should he call Caleb? Even as he thought it he was reaching for his phone, then he remembered her eyes, his girl was gentle, kind, he couldn't believe she would expose him. The fact that she had brought her friend out here before she spoke, that he already seemed to know and that both of them seemed far more concerned with his girl, no Cassie, being landed in an asylum from kissing him. Tyler didn't understand and with that thought he made the decision he would wait and try to speak to her in person before telling Caleb and getting him and the other boys all worked up over what could be nothing. With that decided Tyler returned to the club and his cousin and their friends.

_Authors note: Ok this chapter was the hardest to write so far, I wanted to get a balance between fun and responsibility, then there was the kiss, my first attempt at romance on paper. So yeah. I'm really nervous about this one, please let me know what you think. _


	9. Chapter 9In which Caleb makes connection

_Author note:_

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained, I hope it entertains you too._

**Chapter 9 In which Caleb makes some connections**

Monday morning dawned bright with winter sunshine and Cassie felt the urge to curse the world and stay in bed but the thought that this might be the last sunny day she would be aware of to enjoy had her forcing herself out of bed. As she readied herself for the day she let her mind wander over all they had discovered after the 'Tyler incident' as she was now calling it in her head.

From what they had discovered in their aunts Journal and that of their grandmother Cassie had up to two weeks before the new power would manifest and it would be downhill from there. Cassie had a small chance, she had only been exposed to three of the four boys, if she continued to stay clear of Garwin she could buy herself some time, or maybe even avoid the madness altogether. It was not anything they had a precedent on. Her aunt had been exposed to all four sons from her generation while at university at one party it seemed. Cassie had been exposed over a period of months and had her own personal gifts before being exposed.

It was possible her mind was better adapted to handle the strains, or that her body had, had the chance to integrate and control each gift as it came along. That she would not be overwhelmed purely because she had learnt control before another overwhelmed her. There were many things they didn't know or understand, Cassie had decided that while her brother tried to figure out as much as he could she was, while she still had a choice, going to pretend nothing had changed.

Grabbing her book bag she headed to the Cafeteria to grab some breakfast, ever since she had begun practicing with her brother Cassie had discovered that she was almost constantly hungry, but as far as she could tell her body was burning it all off. She had actually lost weight in the past 2 months, despite all the eating she had been doing. It looked as though if she continued to eat, she would be able to use her gifts with impunity, but each new gift seemed to make her burn energy just that little bit faster.

Entering the Cafeteria Cassie didn't immediately spot him, convinced that her usual disguise would continue to protect her, but he saw her and intercepted her as soon as she exited the line with her tray. Grabbing both her arm and the tray she was carrying Tyler guided her to a table in the far corner of the room.

"So are you going to tell me what that was all about on Saturday night?" he demanded, voice harsh even to his own ears. At the look of horror on her face Tyler took a steadying breath and tried again,

"Look, Cassie, I know you perhaps don't want anything to do with me, and normally I'd respect that. Its just after you left the other night, I followed you. I heard some things and I need to know if what I heard is true."

Cassie was rapidly thinking back, trying to remember what she had told Alexis in her panic. In a flash she saw it all, heard the words;

"_Tyler Simms, as in Son of Ipswich Tyler, as in fire and black eyes Tyler, as in I can do anything I want, provided I don't mind aging a few years Tyler Simms!"_

Closing her eyes in defeat Cassie took a deep breath and spoke in a quite, calm, even tone.

"I, We, my brother and I have known the truth about you and the others for years. We've never spoken of it to an outsider, and we don't plan on ever doing so. You can relax."

Tyler felt his shoulders slump both in defeat and relief at her words. "What about all that other stuff?"

Shaking her head Cassie stood, grabbing what she could off her tray "It was nothing, look I've gotta go. You and your brothers have nothing to be concerned about." Turning to leave she paused, looking back at him "and Tyler, under normal circumstances you'd be taking me to dinner tonight, that was some kiss!"

Tyler grinned like a fool at her back as she dashed out of the cafeteria, only realizing once she had disappeared that she had said he _would_, not he was going to be able to. Slipping into the seat she had just vacated Tyler began to pick at the remaining food, as he did he was joined by Kate,

"Hey Ty, I got that info on the girl for you, her name is Cassie, she's a senior, real quite, by all accounts she's never even set foot in Nicky's, works in the bakery in town.." Her detailed personality profile was cut short by the arrival of the other Boy's and Sarah,

"Baby boy, what's the deal running off and leaving me alone this morning? We always have breakfast together"

Tyler barely grunted in response, everyone else at the table exchanged looks, silently electing Caleb the spokesperson. With a tilt of his head he signaled and both Kate and Sarah left, to go collect their books for the first class of the day.

"Tyler, what up?" Staring down into the oatmeal Tyler threw his spoon down in frustration and looked up into the concerned faces of his brothers.

"It's this girl, Cassie" Reid smirked leaning back in his seat however, both Caleb and Pogue straightened slightly and it didn't go unnoticed either, "Do you guys know her?"

Pogue looked at each of his brothers in turn before shrugging. Caleb looked around meeting each of their eyes in turn. "Yeah, I met her at the beginning of the year; she knows stuff, she warned me, saved all our lives apparently"

Reid shared a confused look with Pogue, Tyler just nodded "Yeah, I heard her talking with her brother the other night, she talked about guy's with _fire in their eyes_ who thought they could do anything. Pogue and Reid looked sharply between their brothers, "and we're only hearing about this now because?" Reid demanded

It was Caleb who responded "She's no threat to us, she came to me in good faith, warned me about Chase, though she didn't know it was him. She told me I had to do it on my own or we'd all die. She told me other things too things that hadn't happened yet, when they did I believed her. I had to do it on my own and not tell you guys about it."

The stunned silence around the table spoke volumes. Reid was the first to find his voice, "So what she's like us? But she's a chick."

"Not like us" Caleb ran a hand through his hair in frustration "she called it a 'gift' said she had no control over it but that she couldn't let me get myself and all of you killed. Said she was supposed to remain in the shadows, that we weren't suppose to know about her. So I kept quiet."

"What I want to know is if she promised to keep quiet what was she doing mouthing off to some guy so that Baby boy could hear?"

"She was a little upset, said something about going crazy, I tried to talk to her about it but each time I get close, she just runs off. We need to be able to pin her down to talk, somewhere private" Tyler spoke though his head remained down staring into the uneaten breakfast.

At this point Pogue decided to speak up, "ah, guy's I might be able to help with that."

Three heads turned to look at him as one "What do you mean?"

"Well remember how I was getting all that help from the bakery lady?"

"Yeah, man those cakes were Sweet!" Rolling his eyes at Reid, Pogue continued "Well, it wasn't actually the lady that owns the place, it was her pastry Chef, It was Cassie guys."

They all looked at him, shocked that he had kept this from them "She made me promise, to tell no-one, even you guys. But I think in light of the current circumstances…" Trailing off he looked at the faces around him.

"anyway she is due at my place tonight, while you're all at swim practice"

Caleb looked into the faces of his three friends, Reid looked vaguely amused, Pogue grim and Tyler, poor Tyler looked Sick, there was still more to this Caleb was sure.

"Boy's it looks like we're missing practice this afternoon."

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Tyler spend the rest of the day looking for Cassie, and Cassie spent the whole day ducking into empty classrooms moments before Tyler rounded a corner. She lost count of the number of times she thanked the stars that she could see him coming before he had even decided to turn a corner.

For his part Tyler even resorted to using to try and predict Cassie's movements throughout the day. It was the first time since he'd turned thirteen that Tyler felt he'd been outplayed and that his power had failed him, further conversations with Caleb confirmed that it wasn't his power that was failing him, he was just being outmaneuvered at each turn by a girl who could see exactly what he was going to do before he had even decided to do it himself.

At Lunch Caleb realized that if Cassie was on edge and watching Tyler's every move it could prove a disaster for the ambush they had planned for the afternoon. Putting their heads together they decided that Tyler especially should attend the usual swim practice with Reid and Caleb going along too, and then Reid would use a little magic to force an early end to practice. Caleb hoped that with Tyler following the usual pattern for the afternoon Cassie would not realize they were onto her. The next concern was Pogue who had to behave as he would usually with Cassie and hope she turned up and didn't 'see' the ambush before it was too late to escape it.

Although Cassie had been very successful in her mission to avoid Tyler she had been less focused on everything else going on around her. This was the reason she would later justify to herself that she didn't see the ambush coming. It was right after lunch and Cassie had just returned from a raid on the candy machines when she was yet again dragged into a room, this time it was the girl's bathroom.

As the door closed behind her Cassie turned to see who had dragged her into the bathroom. She was a little surprised to see Sarah Wenham check every stall, once she was satisfied they were alone she turned to Cassie, folding her arms across her chest, in what Cassie took to be an attempt at intimidation.

"You know he's just using you right? I mean you do realize that don't you?"

Frowning Cassie looked at her, "Look Sarah, right?" at the confirmatory nod she continued "I have no idea what you're talking about, why don't we just calm down and then you can tell me what's going on?"

Sarah seemed to relax a little upon seeing that the girl she had dragged into the bathroom was not about to start screaming at her.

"I saw you, on Friday, sneaking out of that empty classroom with Pogue. You know he has a girlfriend, my roommate?"

Cassie sighed visibly relaxing, "Is that what this is about, look you don't need to worry about that, or me for that matter. He came to me for help."

"Help, with what" Sarah's face was split with a frown but her posture was less hostile.

"You know it's their anniversary coming up yeah?" Sarah nodded, so Cassie continued "Pogue wanted to do something special for her, he decided to cook dinner for her, her favorite foods and everything." Sarah now had a small smile forming on her lips as Cassie continued, moving forwards until she stood just before the other girl.

"The thing is, from what I understand Pogue has actually managed to burn toast in the past, so he came to Mrs. Hamilton's bakery in town to ask the chef for some guidance, and well. That would be me." Cassie said raising a hand and pointing to herself as she spoke. Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief,

"Wait, you work there, they make the most amazing fudge brownie, it's, its , I don't even have _words_"

Laughing Cassie blushing, "its all in the blend of sugar, trust me. Anyway he came in asking for help, and he looked so pathetic on his crutches and everything. So basically I've been giving him baking lessons for the last few weeks. When you saw us we had just made arrangements for our next lesson"

"Ok, but why all the cloak and dagger stuff, surely you must realize how suspicious it all looks?"

"Yeah, well I like not being noticed, and well have you _met_ Kate? What would she think if she saw what was going on? My life at Spencer would be over, even if it all turned out to be a misunderstanding. I like being invisible. You have to promise not to say anything, _please_ _Sarah_, don't ruin the surprise. No one should know, please, promise."

"I don't see why it has to be such a secret, but yeah, I promise"

"Thanks Sarah, really. I owe you."

Several miles away Alexis was sitting in the secret room of his apartment going over every book he could think of, he was dammed if he was going to let his baby sister fall like this, not if there was anything he could do to stop it. So he sat and he read, taking notes as he did so. It would take him most of the day but eventually he would find something, a ray of hope.


	10. Chapter 10 In which Cassie gets Ambushed

_Author note: I'm really sorry this has taken me so long to update, I have been struggling with Cassie, she keeps trying to go off and do things that don't really fit the story. I think I have her back on track now so keep reading. Thanks SC x _

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained_

**Chapter 10 In which Cassie gets Ambushed**

Cassie was exhausted and absolutely famished. She had been forced to avoid the Cafeteria at lunch because Tyler had spent the entire period watching the door for her. She had hit the vending machines in the dorm common room, and when she said 'hit the vending machines' she meant basically cleaned them out.

The problem was, with the amount she had been forced to tap into her gifts that day, it was still not enough. By the end of last period she was shaking, some sort of hypoglycemic reaction to the overuse, abuse really, of her gifts throughout the day.

Almost stumbling from the building Cassie made a beeline for the cafeteria, no longer caring if Tyler was lying in wait for her; as luck would have it the cafeteria was almost empty as she filled a tray with salad, a burger, fries and chocolate pudding with custard. When the Cashier gave her a look she shrugged, a mumbled "missed lunch" all the explanation she gave. Within minutes she had devoured everything on her tray, but was still hungry. Grabbing her bag she headed for her car and into town to grab some additional supplies before heading over to Pogue's apartment to walk him through making the poached pear tart.

In the drugstore Cassie grabbed bags of all the sweets and chips she could fit into her basket, before heading over to the bakery to pick up the supplies she had ordered for delivery. On the way to the bakery, something caught her eye in the window of the store next door. The shop itself was a small boutique the sort of place you'd not think a small town like Ipswich would have enough foot traffic for, however with the school and many of the underclassmen not having driving licenses yet it still managed to do a good trade.

The thing that had caught Cassie's attention was a gorgeous little dress in midnight blue with a silver belt that sat low on the hips. Not the sort of thing she had ever worn in public before but with everything that had been happening it seemed that remaining invisible was unlikely to be an option for much longer. She figured she might as well have a bit of fun while she still had the chance. So on a whim Cassie darted into the store and bought the dress and a matching pair of spike heeled boots, the combination, the sales girl assured her was 'hot'.

She stuffed her new purchases into her book bag as she collected the supplies from the stock room of the bakery. With a nod to her boss Cassie returned to her car, wolfing down a couple of bags of chips and a tootsie roll before pulling out of her parking space and making her way to Pogue's apartment.

She let herself into the building, knocking on his door while concentrating on keeping all the packages in her arms, so that when the door opened she jumped in shock almost dropping several of the parcels. Laughing Pogue caught the package before it fell to the floor, while opening the door wide to let her in.

"Hey Cass, got enough stuff there?" he asked while guiding her through the door. A brief thought occurred to him, if she was surprised by him answering the door then she was obviously not using her gifts at the moment, which should make things easier for all of them.

"Yeah, well your friends did decide that you had to make one of the more complex deserts on my list. I figure the more we get prepared in advance the less likely you'll be to screw it up on the day."

"Nice, tell me again why I put up with that kind of abuse from you?" Pogue responded with a wry grin.

Throwing a grin over her shoulder Cassie made her way into the kitchen, swinging her hips as she went. "You put up with me because you have no choice, right now you _need_ me, either that or you'll be feeding Kate ice cream from Ben and Jerry for desert."

"Hey, that's not such a bad idea, I think I even have some in the freezer here" Pogue said opening the door and pulling out a mostly full carton.

Cassie fell on the desert, producing a spoon from out of nowhere. "Oh God I am _soo_ hungry, how did you know chunky monkey was my favourite?"

Laughing Pogue lent back against the counter. "I didn't, that's Kate's tub, I always keep some on hand for emergencies. That way if I do something wrong the ice cream king's can fix it"

"muumm, it's mmu, good plan" Cassie's voice was muffled from the large spoonful of ice cream she had just shovelled in. "Oh I'm sorry, did you want some?" she asked offering him the now mostly empty tub.

Pogue held up his hands in surrender, "No, you go ahead, it looks like you were in dire need"

"Yeah, I missed lunch" Cassie responded pulling herself up onto the counter, barely pausing in her ice cream consumption. "I never realised how hard it is to concentrate on Mr Matherson's lectures when all you want to do is run down to the front and steal the bag of chips"

Putting on a fake solemn expression Pogue couldn't help but retort, "I understand completely, I mean what kind of teacher can't give a lesson without eating, like two bags of chips?"

Grinning Cassie licked the spoon clean, tossing it into the sink before jumping off the counter and stowing the remaining creamy goodness back in the freezer.

"Well shall we get started?" She asked "I've had a crappy few day's, and right now the idea of baking that poached pear tart combined with all that yummy ice cream makes me think things might just be looking up."

Cassie began to move around the kitchen pulling pans, chopping boards and other equipment from the shelves and cupboards while Pogue unpacked the bags she had brought with her, consulted the recipe and began pulling the remaining ingredients out of the fridge and cupboards.

Working together they began to prepare the pears for poaching, Cassie peeled one explaining as she went, turning the knife over to Pogue watching and guiding him through several pears until he had produced a couple to her satisfaction. Next they combined the wine and other ingredients in a pan, before adding the pears and setting them to poach.

Together they worked through the rest of the recipe Cassie standing back and coaching where needed until they were interrupted by the front door opening.

"Hey Pogue man, you here?" It was Caleb. At his voice Cassie froze the spoon she had been holding clattering to the surface. In that instant she reached out with her new gifts, it wasn't just Caleb they were all here. All the colour drained from her face as she turned to look at Pogue, betrayal evident in her eyes.

"You told them?"

"He didn't, not really" Said a new voice from behind Cassie. Spinning to face the door Cassie felt her pulse quicken, and not just in fear as she lifted her head to meet those crystal blue eyes.

"Tyler"

It was one word whispered on an outward hiss of a breath. One word, one thought, and inside she crumbled. The inner turmoil didn't show however as Cassie straightened her spine, firming her resolve she pushed past him and into the living room. The door out of the apartment was blocked Reid leaning against it with a smug smirk on his face,

"Going somewhere sweetness?" He asked his gaze running up and down her body in a silent assessment.

Growling Cassie whirled on Tyler, stalking forward "What have you done?" she demanded fire in her eyes.

Tyler's only response was to shift his eyes from her face to the other person in the room, taking his cue from Tyler, Caleb stepped forward holding up one hand with a wry smile. "I think, that might have been my fault"

Turning Cassie scowled at him. "I think you better explain yourself Mr Danvers, and fast my week started off bad and has continued downhill and this situation is not helping any" she bit out, running a hand over her hair, twisting the escaped sections back into the bun at the nape of her neck.

Caleb stepped forward, a wry smile twisting his features "It was weeks, I didn't think you'd come back. I wanted to thank you, then the other week I saw you in the hall, but just for a moment, then you disappeared"

As Caleb stepped forward a small smile began to develop on Cassie's face, all others in the room forgotten.

"You did it, you stopped it, on your own? Was it like I saw? What was it? Who was it?"

"It was exactly like you said it'd be, and thanks to you I now have someone in my life who trusts me and loves me, all of me" While he had been speaking Caleb had moved around the couch and was now standing directly in front of her.

"How can I ever thank you?" Cassie had a grin spread across her face as she placed a hand, palm flat against his chest.

"You already have, it was all worth it."

"Yeah, that's what I don't get" Caleb responded taking her hand and cupping it between his two much larger ones.

"What risk? Tyler mentioned your brother saying something about a mental asylum, and now you say helping me was worth the risk. I think you've some explaining to do, don't you?"

At the mention of Tyler, Cassie visibly stiffened. She tried unsuccessfully to pull her hands from Caleb's grasp but he held firm.

"Tell us, maybe we can help, trust us like I trusted you."

Cassie stood with her head drooping, like a flower on a broken stem. No one moved, no one spoke for what seemed like an age, the silence was interrupted by the ring of a phone, without looking up Cassie fumbled through her bag and with a shaking breath answered the phone;

"'lo"

"Cass, What's wrong, are you ok, I'm on my way, what happened, you have to tell me what's wrong, look just hold on"

"Lex?"

"What is it Cass, come on you can tell me" the voice on the end of the line moved from terror to cajoling, trying to soothe.

"It's them, they figured it out, they found me."

A muttered curse and then, "Ok, just stay there, keep calm, don't say anything I'll be there as soon as I can." With that the line went dead.

Taking a deep breath Cassie turned facing the room at large, "I'll talk, but we have to wait, this is not just my story to tell. Lex is on his way, we can talk then."

Pogue stood with arms folded leaning against the couch, at in response to Cassie's statement he tilted his chin, "Who's Lex?"

"My Brother"

"The Guy from the bar at the weekend?" This was Tyler and without looking at him Cassie nodded before moving to the couch and folding in on herself, tucking her chin onto her knees and closing her eyes.

The Son's looked at each other all realising that nothing more was going to be said until this 'Lex' arrived Pogue slid down the wall until he was sitting resting his arms on his bent knees, Caleb sank onto the couch beside Cassie with a sigh. Glancing at his brothers Tyler shook his head and began to pace, he wanted to understand, now. But one glance at the girl curled up on the sofa gently rocking with her eyes closed told him now was not the time to push.

Reid had barely moved from his position at the door, taking a deep breath he prepared to copy Pogue, until he caught the smells floating through the apartment. In an instant he was across the room barging into the kitchen hooting with joy as he spotted the freshly made desert sitting on the side, the glaze still in the pan where it had be left forgotten.

Smiling to himself Reid grabbed a spoon and the pie and headed into the main room with his prize.

With a satisfied sigh he dropped into the armchair and began to tuck in. It wasn't until his first moan of appreciation that anyone took any notice, looking up Pogue all but shouted, "hey, that's my pie!"

Of course this drew the attention of the other boys in the room and before long they were all huddled round the pie dish devouring it with the speed only teenage boys can manage.

With a sigh the boy's sat back satisfied smiles on their faces.

"Man, that was good" Reid said patting his stomach.

At that point Cassie looked up, "You know that wasn't finished right?"

"It gets better than this?" Reid asked with a gesture at the empty dish.

"Course it does man, she makes stuff for the bakery in town. The best deserts in the state!"

"Really?" Both Tyler and Caleb turned to look at Cassie who just nodded her head once in confirmation.

Any further cross questioning about Cassie's ability to bake goodies was stalled by a knock at the door.

Everyone froze until a second knock and a familiar voice had Cassie on her feet moving to open the door.

"Hello, Cass, are you in there?"

The door was flung open just as Cassie reached it and a tall dark haired guy strode purposefully in, his eyes quickly scanned the room taking in each of the Son's and their startled positions before landing on Cassie. With one stride he was across the room scooping her up into a deep embrace.

The Son's all stood silently and watched as Cassie sobbed into this man's shoulder. After a short while, in which Cassie seemed to have calmed somewhat, Caleb cleared his throat. Stepping forward he extended his hand to the man.

"You must be Lex, I'm Caleb Danvers. Look I understand something has happened but I really don't know what and if you could just expla.."

Caleb trailed off at the look that was turned on him. Lex shifted Cassie to one side, further from the four boys in the room. He considered each of them in turn, carefully measuring them before focusing on Caleb. Lex looked him in the eye, then glanced down at the extended hand. The tense silence stretched on before Lex once again met Caleb's eyes and took his hand, in a grip that was perhaps a little too rough to be completely friendly.

"Lex, so these are the Son's of Ipswich, I must say from what I've heard on the grapevine I was expecting something a little more..intimidating I guess.

Reid and Pogue visibly bristled at the comment but a glance from Caleb silenced any comeback they might have made.

Taking a deep breath Caleb spoke again "Look, we don't want to cause any problems, actually we would like to help if we can. A few months ago Cassie told me about her 'gift' and with her help I was able to protect my family, and if she is to be believed many others too. Right after that she just upped and disappeared." As he spoke, telling the story all eyes in the room were drawn to him, when Cassie finally moved her head against Lex's shoulder to meet his eyes Caleb continued

"Then you just disappeared, poof. Until last weekend, when you met Tyler." At this point Lex's eyes flicked to the younger boy standing tense on the other side of the couch, throughout the entire narrative Tyler had not looked away from Cassie.

Caleb continued as if nothing had changed Cassie slowly lifted her eyes to meet Tyler's and once their eyes met neither one of them could look away. The conversation moved on around them as Cassie felt herself drawn into those deep eyes of his, all at once she was there, inside his mind again, only this time she was pretty sure he had invited her in himself.

Cassie was instantly hit by wave after wave of emotion, he must be a pretty good actor as none of what was going through his mind seemed to show on his face. Predominant among the emotions were fear and concern, strangely both of which seemed to be directed mostly at her.

Tyler for his part had been hoping to get a chance to speak to Cassie all day, to try and let her know how much he really cared, standing there wrapped in her brother's arms she looked so fragile he wanted nothing more than to go to her and protect her but all he could do was gaze at her with longing, wishing there were some way to make her understand. Then she had looked up, had met his gaze and he felt it, on some level he recognised the feeling as familiar but on a conscious level he recognised Her, Cassie. Somehow she was with him, but still all the way across the room. With that realisation he began to see more, to see Cassie as she truly was, and it saddened him to realise just how different she really was, just how controlled she was in her everyday existence.

As Cassie's life was being shared with Tyler she was seeing him, the real Tyler, not Reid's partner in crime, not the championship swimmer, the quiet student, the obedient son, but Tyler the boy and the outline of the man he would one day become. As the shared their secrets, their past's, their very essence with each other around them the room finally fell silent, Caleb's narrative, of what they knew and his demands for an explanation fading away as the remaining occupants of the room finally noticed what was happening, or at least that something was happening between Tyler and Cassie.

Alexis reacted first, involuntarily tightening his grip on his baby sister, while Reid, true to form launched an empty soda can at his best friends head. The resultant spray of soda, from the not so empty can had everyone flinching away with yelps of displeasure. Effectively breaking both the staring contest and defusing the mounting tension in the room.

Cassie pulled herself away from her brother for the first time since his arrival, growling in displeasure at Reid, she seemed to have caught the worst of it and was now frantically pulling a very wet shirt away from her body. Casting an appealing look to Pogue who just motioned to a door on the right of the room Cassie scooped up her bag and entered the bathroom.

Minutes later she emerged to find that her brother seemed to have bonded somewhat with the others over punishing Reid for their impromptu shower. From the look on Reid's face as he hung suspended upside down from the light fitting he was less that pleased with the new turn of events, although his eye's lit up when they were able to focus on the large expanse of leg currently on display, Cassie soaked through had been forced to put on the only clothes she had available, her new, very short mini-dress.

What Reid did next was quite possibly the stupidest thing he could have given his current predicament, but when has something like that ever gotten in the way of a Garwin? He let out a long, loud wolf whistle, his eyes continuing to scan Cassie, from the bottom up. "Phew, Sweetness, where have you been hiding all my life"

At this Cassie stopped, crossing her arms and quirking one eyebrow at him one finger raised in a signal to wait.

"Oh, come on now don't stop walking yet, just a couple more steps…"

At this Cassie shook her head a smirk crossing her face, "Oh now you've done it, I was going to try and save you, but that last comment put's you even beyond my help."

"Wha??" Reid tilted his head to the side, the image might have passed as cute, had he not been hanging from his ankles.

Cassie's only response was to twitch her finger in a circular motion. The result of which had Reid turning on the invisible rope that held him until he came Face to Calf with one Very pissed off older bother and an almost as angry best friend…

"Uh, guy's look…I uh, didn't really mean anything by it, it was just harmless fun I mean, she's hot.." Reid's voice trailed off as he realised that he was not helping his case any, " Caleb man you gotta help me"

"Why Reid, because we're brothers? Tyler's your brother too and he seems quite willing to pound your face in, in fact he may even be more keep than Cassie's older, stronger, more muscled brother here" Caleb responded gesturing with his hands before folding them across his chest, taking a defiant pose with feet set wide apart.

With his back to Cassie Reid failed to see her fighting with all her might to suppress the giggles that were desperately trying to escape, but after a minute where everyone else stayed just looked on, mostly fighting to hide their own amusement, Cassie regained control, flopping onto the couch she freed Reid with a quick flick of her wrist he landed with an oomph in a heap on the floor.

"Ok Gentlemen let's step it down a gear shall we," at the looks from everyone around her Cassie grinned raising one hand palm upward in a shrug

"What, you thought all I could do was see the future, can you only throw those big electricity ball thingies?"

The four Sons of Ipswich shared glances before settling themselves in to hear the full story.


	11. Chapter 11 In Which Stories are shared

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained

**Chapter 11- In Which Stories are shared**

_Previously on One Chance:_

_"What, you thought all I could do was see the future, can you only throw those big electricity ball thingies?" _

_The four Sons of Ipswich shared glances before settling themselves in to hear the full story. _

Once everyone was sitting Cassie pulled her knees up, tucking them under her. With a deep breath she looked up meeting the eye's of each of the Son's in turn before settling on those of her brother.

"You can do it Cass, I'm here but it's mostly your story to tell" With a small quirk of the lip and a slight incline of her head Cassie acknowledged the support. Turning in her seat to face Caleb, in a move that effectively blocked Tyler from her eye line Cassie began to tell the story.

"We," at this Cassie motioned to her brother and herself have known about you guy's since I was twelve years old, although the family, all out families have a history that goes way back."

"What do you mean way back?" the frown creasing Pogue's forehead spoke to his confusion and it was mirrored in the other faces around the room,

"Surely if we had some sort of history and your family has magic too it would be mentioned in the book of Damnation?" This came from Tyler but Cassie refused to look at him, this obviously frustrated the youngest son as he turned his attention to his brother,

"Caleb?"

"I would of thought so but, the book has missed things before"

"Yeah but nothin' this major" Reid shot from his position still slumped on the floor where he had landed earlier.

Lex shrugged sprawling out on the opposite side of the couch "Maybe, you wern't suppose to know"

The Son's looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief and denial, before any of them could speak however Cassie's voice whispered out from behind a curtain of hair.

"That would fit, I mean it makes sense, why would your grandfathers risk it, or for that matter our Great grandparents.."

"Risk what, what did our grandfathers do?" This from Caleb. Cassie turned to face him fully meeting his eyes for the first time since she had began telling the story.

As he looked into those eyes the raw terror in them scared him, when she spoke her voice was broken, raw with restrained feelings.

"It's a risk because, for the women of my family exposure to you and your kind often leads to madness."

There was a pause as everyone in the room stopped to absorb this information.

"Often, but not always" It was Tyler, as he spoke he reached forwards hands stretching out to Cassie, to touch her, hold her, just to make contact.

Cassie shrank back from his outstretched hand, shooting a look at her brother, who took up the narrative.

"That's not all, from what we can gather from the stories and documents we have available close proximity to" and here he paused to throw an apologetic look at Cassie

"One of our girls, can bring out the worst in you guys"

"Literally"

"I don't, what do you mean?" Tyler's frown of confusion melted her heart but Cassie quickly turned her attention elsewhere.

"Ok, so if you could rank yourselves from most likely to least likely to use what would be the order?"

The boy's all looked around the room at each other, it was Pogue who spoke up first

"Reid first, then me. After that it's close but I'm guessing Caleb then Baby boy."

Alexis looked at Cassie, who was just nodding to herself, " Cass?"

"Yeah I thought so, you guy's can feel when each other uses right?" At the confirming nod from Caleb she continued,

"So in the last 48 hours can you do the rank again based on actual use of magic?"

As the brothers all shared glances Tyler was the one to speak up, "Me, I've used loads, but I was trying to find you to talk to you."

"Maybe today, but what about before then?"

Cassie turned looking directly into his eyes, watching as realisation dawned

"You've used loads since Saturday night, right?" Tyler's mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.

With a nod Cassie continued.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, It's my fault. I didn't know it was you, I thought I was safe, I was out of Ipswich. Do you know how _hard_ it is to be constantly on your guard, to not be able to do many of the things you love because _someone_ might notice you, to have to spend _every_ moment of your day trying to be invisible."

"Is that why you dress like you do? Never go out and Party?" This from Reid.

Cassie let out a bark or laughter, sounding harsh even to her own ears. "Are you telling me if I had done any of those things the great Reid Garwin would have ever left me alone? Ever taken 'No' for an answer?"

"I might of" came the disgruntled reply, immediately shot down by three other voices in the room.

"You were always the biggest risk Reid, even from the outside it was clear you liked to use, both magic and girls. I had to keep you at a distance, for all out sakes. Best way I could figure was to be invisible to you. I think I'm as the only girl in our class you didn't hit on last semester."

"Really?" This from Caleb,

"What, like your surprised?" Lex snorted, even I have heard of Garwin's reputation and I don't even go here"

Reid lent back against the couch folding his hands behind his head, a smug look crossing his face,

"What can I say, the ladies all love a bit of the Garwin charm"

Snorts of disbelief, rolled eyes and shaken heads were the responses around the room to Reid's little display of shameless self belief.

"Yeah, well, just keep away from my sister" Alexis growled

Reid held his hands before him in a sign of surrender, " Hey man, there are plenty of other hot girls around. She tells me its not safe, I'll leave it be"

Everyone settled back into their seats missing Reid's muttered "for now"

"We seem to have gotten off topic here" Caleb broke in. Cassie tilted her head back against the couch behind her, mentally cataloguing what they had already covered.

Lex took this as a signal to take over the narrative.

So Cass was visiting me, partly to have some fun, but also to do some research.

Cassie lifted her head interrupting her brother, she moved her eyes looking directly into Tyler's eyes.

"I was suppose to be safe, but you were there, and you came up to me, and, Wait,"

Slipping forward off the couch so she was kneeling before him Cassie regarded him with a piercing gaze "did you _use_ on me? To make me more, compliant? To keep my eyes closed?"

"I was afraid you would run again" Tyler whispered.

Shaking her head in disgust, Cassie stood and began to pace,

"What'd he do?" It was Pogue. Cassie shook her head into Tyler's chest, burrowing deeper as if to hide from this nightmare.

Taking a deep breath his voice barely over a whisper Tyler answered for them both, "I kissed her, really, properly kissed her, Cassie I'm so sorry if I'd had any idea, if, I, oh god"

Cassie pulled away, shaking her head "I, it.." she began moving restlessly about the room, Pogue made a move to stop her but a gesture from Reid stopped him.

"Cassie, maybe we can help? Please, none of us would ever want this, please let us at least try and make it right" Caleb pleaded

Throughout this whole exchange Lex had sat with his arms folded, a less than pleased expression on his face. At Caleb's plea he snorted.

"You better hope you can help, otherwise I'll be forced to hex you into the next century"

"Lex," Cassie admonished, "Can we please leave the macho posturing for another time, we need to working on solutions, not working each other over"

"Cassie's right" Tyler spoke up, leaning over the back of the couch.

"Coming from you, man, you're the one that got her in this mess" Pouge snapped.

Reid sat up straighter as Tyler pushed away from the couch with a growl, Caleb tensed ready to break up the fight, but it never happened. Yet again it was Cassie who brought things back from the precipice, this time with a particularly unstable 'bump'

"It's not just him, It appears that physical contact and or prolonged exposure to any of you has a 'special' effect on us." Here she turned to face Caleb,

"You were first, two weeks after we spoke, things began to move around when I was upset" Turning to Pogue she spoke again "they you had to kiss me.." At this Tyler growled taking a step towards his brother, this more than anything else that had happened since entering Pogue's apartment shocked the brothers,

"Chill it was on the cheek"

This was said in an undertone to Tyler as Cassie continued, "A couple of weeks after that, I could hear voices, later I realised they were peoples thoughts."

Turning to regard Caleb, Reid and then Pogue she continued, studiously keeping her back to Tyler.

"I managed to learn to control each of those gifts as they developed, but I knew I was dangerously close to the breaking point. I mean Aunt Sandra only had the four gifts, and she's completely whakko. Me I already had the visions, then the telekinesis and, I guess telepathy. My brother," Here Cassie gestured to Lex who was sitting resting his chin in his hand, he waved his fingers for Cassie to continue.

"We were researching, talking about damage limitation. I mean I only had to stay a few more months, but then that night." Here she turned to look at Tyler again,

"With you"

"Shit," Tyler shook his head "I,"

Cassie was studiously avoiding his gaze again and so failed to notice the anguished look on Tyler's face as his nimble mind put together the pieces. Moving forward Tyler stood and intercepted Cassie in her pacing, enfolded her in an embrace trying to convey his sorrow and remorse.

"Ty, Man, we'll fix this" This from Reid,

The comment itself elicited a raised eyebrow from Alexis and a small smile from Caleb. It wasn't often that Reid showed his caring sharing side, but protecting his 'people' was one of those times, and it seemed Reid was looking to adopt Cassie and her brother into the fold.

Speaking up from his position leaning against the couch Tyler asked,

"So, you like, both have powers?"

"Yeah, but they're different to yours" Lex spoke, "Although some of us have more powers than others."

Cassie smirked and with an all encompassing gesture around the room spoke up, "Hey be my guest, cosy up to one of 'em, best not be Reid though"

The rousing yells of denial from every other person in the room were more than a little funny, at least they were if your name happened to be Cassie, to escape the censure she was sure to receive Cassie dashed out of the room, returning from the kitchen moments later with a whole host of sodas and a box of cupcakes. The soda's she passed around but the box of cupcakes she set on her lap as she tucked in the boy's all looked on in shock as she consumed the entire pack.

"Man, I have never in my life seen a Chick eat like that" Reid let out a low whistle.

Cassie's only response, around a mouthful of icing was a shrug and mumbled "side effect of the magic boys."

"What do you mean side effect? Do you not age"

Cassie shook her head while Lex took up the explanation " Nope, no premature wrinkles. The power taps into something else, Cass has been eating enough food to make a grown man cry recently, I guess that's how it works for us."

"But that's not really the problem is it? How do we stop Cassie going crazy?" Caleb asked bring the room back to the problem at hand.

Lex took over, seeing the strain in every line of his sister's body.

"It happened before, to our grandmothers generation. To the last person to have been exposed to more than two of you, she is languishing in the Psychiatric hospital in Salem, where she's been for the last fifty odd years."

"She had powers?" Cassie nodded in response to the question not even noticing from where it came.

"What exactly happens, what is going to happen to Cassie, how do we stop it?"

Lex Slumped back into the couch throwing his arms over the back as he began to explain their families history and their connection to the Son's. When he mentioned that Cassie had been sent to Ipswich to watch over and guide them, but remain hidden Caleb interrupted.

"Cassie said that to me before, if we're such a risk to you why was she sent here in the first place?"

Lex looked over as Cassie, "Cass?"

Taking a steadying breath Cassie spoke, with each word her voice gained in strength until it sounded almost normal.

"I'm not completely sure; asking questions of your elders is not something that's encouraged in the family. All I understood was that I had to protect you, all of you" at this she paused gazing around the room and meeting each set of eyes in turn, finally she met _his_ and as she continued she held his gaze, almost speaking directly to him.

"I had to protect you from yourselves and from others"

"Chase" Tyler said quietly, flinching as he did so.

Continuing as if she hadn't heard him, and perhaps she hadn't Cassie explained how, when she was just turning twelve she had been called into the library at her grandmothers house and told about the history of Ipswich, told that she and her family were part of the same world, but that they had remained hidden even to others of their kind. Then from the darkest corner of the room a voice Cassie had never heard before spoke "She's the one, I'm sure, she must protect them, hide from them and save them. I'm sorry sister but the fire will have her willingly or not, just like little Sandy, poor little Sandy"

"At the time I didn't understand, sometimes I think I never will but it was my great aunt Sandra, they'd let her out for the day, just to be sure there was no other way. Apparently they had been trying everything they could think of but all the signs said the same thing. I had to come to Spenser; I had to save the lot of you whatever the consequences"

"When I started developing new gifts, I knew I had to be careful"

Turning to regard Caleb, Reid and then Pogue she continued, studiously keeping her back to Tyler.

"I managed to learn to control each of those gifts as they developed, but I knew I was dangerously close to the breaking point. I mean Aunt Sandra only had the four gifts, and she's completely whakko. Me I already had the visions, then the telekinesis and, I guess telepathy. Lex and I were talking about damage limitation. I mean I only had to stay a few more months. We figured as long as I didn't develop any more I'd be ok, but then that night. I met Tyler, we figure I have about 2 weeks"

Lex looked at his Sister, having listened to the story, hearing some of it for the first time.

"You know what this means Cass, our best option, we need more information"

Cassie met her brothers gaze, after a few moments she shook her head "No,i..i can't"

"We need more information, she's the only one who can tell us what happened, she was there."

"Yeah, but that was the last time she was all there, if you get me" Cassie said, motioning with her hand by her head.

The Son's exchanged glances, it was Pogue who voiced their questions,

"Umm, who?, what are you guy's talking about?"

"Aunt Sandra" They both responded in unison.

"Crazy aunt Sandra?" Reid asked

Rolling her eyes Cassie turned to look at him

"Yeah, she's the only one who might know, be able to help"

Caleb looked around the room at his brothers "Well then, it looks like we're going to Salem boys."


	12. Chapter 12 In which Great Aunt Sandra

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, I'm just borrowing them to keep me entertained_

**Chapter 12 In which Great Aunt Sandra sheds some light**

**­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­**Cassie pulled her brother to the side as they made their way out of the apartment building,

"Lex, I don't think, its, I." Taking a deep breath Cassie clenched her hands into fists as she screwed up her face.

"I don't think I can go there, I don't think I can face that place, not when I might soon be there myself."

Lex nodded squeezing her hand "Ok, well we can drop you off with Gran, pick you up after?"

Nodding they followed the brothers down to the Garage. Somehow in the discussions of who was travelling with whom Cassie ended up in Tyler's Hummer with Pouge and Caleb while Reid and Tyler were in with her brother.

Alexis was desperate, that was the only way to describe it. He loved his sister actually as he reflected upon it she was the most important thing in his life and she had been since the day he first held her, face red and screaming only hours old. That was the reason he was sitting on his grandmothers front porch, with two of the four boy's who had at once been the cause of his despair and might just be his only hope of saving his baby sister.

As the black Hummer appeared at the end of the drive he pulled himself to his feet making his way off the front steps to meet them. The passenger was the first to get to him, leaping out of the vehicle before it had come to a complete halt.

"Alexis, hey, look, about the weekend, I had no idea, I really like Cassie, I have done for years, but she would never talk to me…" Looking at the earnest face before him Alexis couldn't help but melt slightly, if he knew his sister at all he would guess the reason she had avoided this guy as well as she had for the past five years was because she didn't want to get too close.

Before he got a chance to respond to the boy's comments they were joined by the three others.

Caleb stepped forward acting as the spokesperson for the group. "Look man, by all accounts your sister saved all our lives a couple of months ago, I'd like to return the favor if I can."

"I'll hold you to that, Cassie means the world to me, and I'm no the only one"

Turning towards the hummer he gestured over his shoulder, "Come on we have an appointment"

"So where'_s_Cassie at?" Lex asked as he lead them down the hall and into the room that had belonged to his great aunt for as long as he could remember

"Yeah, about that" Caleb started

"She sortta took over the car while Caleb was driving here, we ended up stopping down the road a ways, she jumped out and took off into the forest, said you'd understand."

Sighing Alexis shook his head,

"She better be in one piece or I'll be holding each of you personally responsible" Lex threatened.

"Don't worry man I will personally kill anyone that lays a hand on Cassie" Tyler interjected. The grunts of approval from the other sons were cut short by a soft voice from inside the room,

"Darling Cassandra, on the knifes edge, close to the tipping point, so much more than those before her, but still she must proceed with care. Still she searches for something beyond her reach, a missing link."

The Boy's exchanged perplexed looks as they entered the room, "I don't get it" Reid stated throwing himself back into a chair.

Pogue leaned into him, responding under his breath so only his brother could hear "I don't think we're suppose to, she's crazy man."

Despite the hushed tones both boys received a glared from Alexis and a reproachful look from Caleb.

While the others had been frustrated by their lack of understanding Tyler has not moved, since entering the room, his eyes locked onto those of the old woman before him. Looking into those eyes knowing she saw him, but that she would never _know_ him. As he pondered these thoughts and the words she had spoken he felt a second presence in his mind, startled his eyes widened, the old woman smiled slightly. Suddenly Tyler fell into darkness.

When he came to himself at first everything was shrouded in a grey mist, constantly flowing around him like water. Tyler stood, or at least he thought he stood. It was rather difficult to tell which way was up let alone what was going on, and yet he had no fear. Turning in a tight circle looking for anything, for an indication of where he might be his attention was caught by a flash of light, then it was gone, and back again. As Tyler watched the pattern of light his other senses began to kick in he could hear a dull roar accompanied by rhythmic crashing and he could smell salt, somehow he had found himself beside the sea, as the light went past again realization hit him, he was out by Marblehead.

"How'd I get here" he asked himself out loud, not expecting a response he jumped when he received one,

"Well I don't know dear, this _is_ your mind, why are we here, couldn't you've thought up somewhere a little warmer for us to have this chat, I'm getting on a bit you know"

Spinning to find the source of the voice Tyler spotted another smaller light source off to his left, moving cautiously towards it he found the old lady, Cassie's Great aunt sitting beside a fireplace with a tea tray beside her. The whole scene took on a particularly surreal edge as the fireplace, though built from stone was freestanding and the carpet on which the two armchairs were arranged seemed to fade into the grass that surrounded them.

Smiling the old lady motioned to the second seat, "please dear sit down, we have a lot to talk about"

Having been taught to always respect his elders, much to Reid's disgust. Tyler moved to sit in the chair, "Hello Mrs Deamer, what're we doing here?"

"All in good time Mr. Simms, now how about some tea?" As she spoke Cassie's great aunt began to pour tea for both of them. Tyler confirmed he took his tea with one sugar and accepted the proffered cup. "Now, young Mr. Simms, what exactly are we doing here? That' what you want to know?"

"Yeah, that and, umm, I don't mean to be rude but how come you're, like well.."

"Sane?" Tyler's eyes widened in horror,

"No, its just, in your room, they said you couldn't hold a conversation anymore and well.."

"Yes dear, I'm well aware of what they say, but they also say that magic isn't real, and we both know that is not the case now don't we" Tyler nearly choked on his tea.

Taking a sip from her tea Sandra Deamer smiled encouragingly at him, over the rim of her cup. "Dear boy, out in the real world I don't make any sense, I've been trapped inside my head since I turned nineteen. It's not like I have many people to talk to."

Tyler immediately felt contrite, leaning forward he touched her hand, "I'm sorry Mame, I didn't mean to be rude. It's just, this is a little strange, even for me" he said gesturing at their surroundings.

"Well of course it is dear, I doubt you've had the chance to converse with another person within your own mind before. It's an unusual talent, to be sure, but one I developed thanks to your grandfather. I expect that's why I was able to join you here, like this"

"My Grandfather? You knew him?" Tyler asked leaning forward in his seat.

"Of course I did boy, quite the charmer he was too. He had girls throwing themselves at him all over the place, not that you could really blame them he was a rather handsome fella, I can see him in you, you know that?"

Sandra laughed at the blush that began rapidly spread over the boy's face "Now, how is it that you can be best friends with that rouge of a Garwin and blush so prettily for me? Humm" shaking her head she took a sip of tea before setting the cup aside and grasping both of Tyler's hands in her own small frail palms.

"Now listen well my boy, we don't really have too much more time, I'm not sure I'll be able to help you more after today, by the time I'm well enough it will likely be too late for my darling niece."

"Too late? But wait, does that mean there is a chance?" Tyler felt his heart leap at the prospect.

"Of course there's a chance, Cassie was always meant to be the one, I got there a couple of generations too early, to my cost. She has the capacity to become one very powerful witch, more than any before her. She was always to be our family legacy and our path to atone for the sins of the past." They were interrupted by what felt like movement, and voices, shouting in concern.

"It seems out time together is at an end, to find the path you must look to the past, the history that binds us as one. In that place and with that knowledge, together you may all be able to right the wrongs, return the balance we all once enjoyed, before greed, jealousy and power ripped it all asunder."

Tyler was no longer holing the tea cup, or sitting on the chair, they were both standing in the mist again and Cassie's Aunt was fading into the swirling shadows, "Wait, I don't understand, what do I have to do?"

"look to damnation, and it's sister the book of Sal.."

"The book of what? Miss Deamer I can't hear you" But it was no use, Tyler was once again alone in the mist of his mind, the voices that had been merely background whispers on the wind were now discern-able as the voices of his brothers, and that of Alexis. Tyler jolted awake, sitting bolt upright with a cry of shock,

"Miss Deamer, please I don't understand"

"Ty, man, what happened one minute you were fine, the next you were passed out on the floor" It was Caleb, leaning over him concern evident in his voice.

"I'm telling you dude, he fainted, like a pansy ass girl" Reid called from his position leaning over the chair Tyler had been sitting on.

"I didn't faint, I just.." Here Tyler paused to look around him, Catching sight of Aunt Sandra he grinned,

"I just got some major guidance on how to save Cassie"

At this, every set of eyes in the room turned to consider him.

"It was like a trance or something.." As Tyler explained he climbed off the floor and began to rove around the room, energy fairly crackled around him. As he came to the end of his tale four sets of eyes regarded him with disbelief, but it was the fifth set of eyes that convince Tyler he had not imagined it, nodding towards her he said, "Isn't that right Miss Deamer?"

"Of course it is Sugarplum, now off you trot, take that Garwin with you, I'm too old for his kinds of games. Remember that every Girl has secrets, kept locked away in her room, no matter her age." She responded with a nod, setting her hands in her lap and promptly falling asleep.

"Sugarplum?" Reid guffawed "man that is twisted"

"Shut up dude!" Tyler snapped back, before both he and Reid were swiftly slapped by Caleb who was closely watching Alexis.

"What is it Alexis?"

Alexis turned to glance at the brothers before swiftly focusing back on his Aunt, "She called him Garwin, that's his family name right?"

"Yeah, but so what? Loads of people call me Garwin"

"No, but she has never spoken aloud the names of the covenant, from the day she discovered what they did to her she refused to acknowledge they existed, but if she, that means."

"She really was aware of us in the room, of what we were asking" Caleb filled in when he realized that Alexis was too shocked to continue.

"So that means that what Tyler say's he saw,"

"Is probably true, and she has just given us a lead to saving Cassie" Alexis finished.

The Boy's all turned to Tyler again,

"So baby boy, what did the old braud have to say again?" Reid piped up from his position sprawled across two chairs.

"We have to check the book of damnation" At Tyler's words Alexis' head shot up,

"Wait, you have the book?"

At the confirming nods he continued "well, I guess that explains a lot of things, it use to be part of our family library, but it disappeared some time back"

"Yeah, but there's another book, she said we had to also look in the book of..Sa, sa, something, I don't know" Letting out a frustrated growl Tyler fisted his hair with one hand before looking to Caleb, "I was pulled out of it too soon, and she doesn't have the strength to help again, she told me. Do you know a book of Sa.. whatever?"

Each of the brothers looked to the other, mystified as to the book they needed, until Alexis spoke, "Perhaps the book of Salvation?"

"Could that be considered a 'sister' book?" Tyler asked hopefully.

Alexis gave him a strange look, it is, both books are part of a whole, separately they chart the history of witchcraft here in Massachusetts and it's history before then. Legend dictates that the books were separated during the trials to protect those with the gift, but that there was some kind of disagreement between the caretakers that had far reaching consequences. I think there was also something about righting wrongs and returning the balance"

"That's it," Tyler yelled leaping to his feet "That's the book, Miss Deamer said something about the balance and righting wrongs and about a sister book, where is it? Perhaps if we can read it and compare it to our book we can find the answer"

Alexis was shaking his head, "I don't know, I've never seen the book. My grandmother told me it was lost a long time ago, when she was a girl. She told Cass and I everything she could remember about it, and what it said, perhaps if I look at your book, we can find the answer that way?"

"It's the best lead we have right now" Caleb responded standing from his perch on the arm of Reid's chair, "lets go, the book is in Ipswich"

_Author note: Can anyone guess what the boy's are going to discover, what could have gone wrong? Is Cassie destined to be like her great aunt or can the boy's discover and set right a wrong that was done generations before they were born? Only time will tell, review and we shall all find out._


End file.
